Edited sentence: Nine of these missions returned to Earth bearing samples of Moon rocks.Since the Soviet Union first succeeded in implementing the concept in 1966, this term referred to 18 spacecraft landings on the Moon through 1976.Since this was during the time of the Cold War, the contest to be the first on the Moon was one of the most visible facts of the Space Race.The Soviet Union later achieved sample returns via the unmanned Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 moon landings.The former Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, Europe, India and China have all achieved hard Moon landings