Luna E-6 No.3 [SEP] time of spacecraft launch
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Luna E-6 No.3


Luna E-6 No.3, also identified as No.2 and sometimes by NASA as Luna 1963B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1963. It was a Luna E-6 spacecraft, the second of twelve to be launched, and the second consecutive launch failure. It was intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, a goal which would eventually be accomplished by the final E-6 spacecraft, Luna 9. Luna E-6 No.3 was launched at 09:26:14 UTC on 3 February 1963, atop a
13485245
Luna E-6 No.6


Luna E-6 No.6, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1964A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1964. It was a Luna E-6 spacecraft, the fourth of twelve to be launched, It was intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, a goal which would eventually be accomplished by the final E-6 spacecraft, Luna 9. Luna E-6 No.6 was launched at 08:15:35 UTC on 21 March 1964, atop a Molniya-M 8K78M carrier rocket, flying from Site
13789645
Luna E-6 No.2


Luna E-6 No.2, also identified as No.1, and sometimes known in the West as Sputnik 25, was a Soviet spacecraft which launched in 1963, but was placed into a useless orbit due to a problem with the upper stage of the rocket that launched it. It was a Luna E-6 spacecraft, the first of twelve to be launched. It was intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, a goal which would eventually be accomplished by the final E-6 spacecraft, Luna 9. Luna E-6
4297993
Luna E-6 No.5


Luna E-6 No.5, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1964B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1964. It was a Luna E-6 spacecraft, the fifth of twelve to be launched, It was intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, a goal which would eventually be accomplished by the final E-6 spacecraft, Luna 9. Luna E-6 No.5 was launched at 08:08:28 UTC on 20 April 1964, atop a Molniya-M 8K78M carrier rocket, flying from Site
13789674
Luna E-6 No.8


Luna E-6 No.8, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1965A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1965. It was a Luna E-6 spacecraft, the seventh of twelve to be launched, It was intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, a goal which would eventually be accomplished by the final E-6 spacecraft, Luna 9. Luna E-6 No.8 was launched on 10 April 1965, atop a Molniya-L 8K78L carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur
13789709
Luna E-3 No.1


Luna E-3 No.1, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1960A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1960. It was a Luna E-3 spacecraft, the first of two to be launched, both of which were lost in launch failures. It was intended to fly around the Moon on a circumlunar trajectory in order to image the surface of the Moon, including the far side. The E-3 spacecraft were similar in design to the E-2A which had been used for the earlier Luna 3 mission. However,
13485204
Luna E-3 No.2


Luna E-3 No.2, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1960B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1960. It was a Luna E-3 spacecraft, the second of two to be launched, both of which were lost in launch failures. It was intended to fly around the moon on a circumlunar trajectory in order to image the surface of the Moon, including the far side. The E-3 spacecraft were similar in design to the E-2A which had been used for the earlier Luna 3 mission. However,
13485216
Luna E-1 No.3


Luna E-1 No.3, sometimes identified by NASA as "Luna 1958C", was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1958. It was a Luna E-1 spacecraft, the third of four to be launched, all of which were involved in launch failures. It was intended to impact the surface of the Moon, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface. The spacecraft was intended to release of sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be
4820827
Luna E-8-5 No. 405


Luna E-8-5 No.405, also known as Luna Ye-8-5 No.405, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1970A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1970. It was a Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the fifth of eight to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth. Luna E-8-5 No.405 was launched at 04:16:06 UTC on 6 February 1970 atop a Proton-K
13790008
Luna E-1 No.1


Luna E-1 No.1, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958A, was a Soviet Luna E-1 spacecraft which was intended to impact the Moon. It did not accomplish this objective as it was lost in a launch failure. It was the first of four E-1 missions to be launched. Luna E-1 No.1 was a spacecraft which marked the first Soviet attempt to send a spacecraft to the Moon. It was also the first mission of the Luna programme. The spacecraft was intended to release of sodium, in order to create a "comet
4820783
Luna 6


Luna 6, or E-6 No.7 was an uncrewed Soviet spacecraft which was intended to perform a landing on the Moon as part of the Luna program. Due to the failure of a mid-course correction manoeuvre, "Luna 6" failed to land, instead flying past the Moon at a distance of . "Luna 6" was launched by a Molniya-M carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Liftoff occurred at 07:40 UTC on 8 June 1965, with the spacecraft and Blok L upper stage entering a
12317336
Luna 4


Luna 4, or E-6 No.4 was a Soviet spacecraft launched as part of the Luna program to attempt the first soft landing on the Moon. Following a successful launch, the spacecraft failed to perform a course correction and as a result it missed the Moon, remaining instead in Earth orbit. "Luna 4" was launched by a Molniya-L carrier rocket at 08:16:37 UTC on 2 April 1963. Launch occurred from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After reaching an initial parking orbit of , the rocket's upper stage restarted
3607496
Luna E-6LS No.112


Luna E-6LS No.112, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1968A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1968. It was a Luna E-6LS spacecraft, the second of three to be launched. The spacecraft was intended to enter Selenocentric orbit, where it would study the Moon, and demonstrate technology for future manned Lunar missions. Luna E-6LS No.112 was launched at 10:43:54 on 7 February 1968, atop a Molniya-M 8K78M carrier rocket with a Blok-L upper stage, flying from Site 1/5 at
13789819
Luna E-1 No.2


Luna E-1 No.2, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1958. It was a Luna E-1 spacecraft, the second of four to be launched, all of which were involved in launch failures. It was intended to impact the surface of the Moon, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface. The spacecraft was intended to release of sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be observed from
4820820
Luna E-8-5M No. 412


Luna E-8-5M No.412, also known as Luna Ye-8-5M No.412, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1975A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1975. It was a Luna E-8-5M spacecraft, the second of three to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth. Luna E-8-5M No.412 was launched at 04:04:56 UTC on 16 October 1975 atop
1885074
Luna 5


Luna 5, or E-6 No.10, was an unmanned Soviet spacecraft intended to land on the Moon as part of the Luna programme. It was intended to become the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, however its retrorockets failed, and the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface. "Luna 5" was launched by a Molniya-M carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Liftoff occurred at 07:49:37 UTC on 9 May 1965. The spacecraft and Blok L upper stage entered a low Earth parking
12317333
Luna E-8 No.201


Luna E-8 No.201, also known as Luna Ye-8 No.201, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1969A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1969. It was a Luna E-8 spacecraft, the first of three to be launched, It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, in order to deploy a Lunokhod rover onto the surface. It carried the Lunokhod No.201 rover. Luna E-8 No.201 was launched at 06:48:15 UTC on 19 February 1969 atop a Proton-K 8K78K carrier rocket
13789893
Luna 9


Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. The lander had a mass of . It used a landing bag to survive the impact speed of . It was a hermetically sealed container with radio equipment, a program timing device, heat control systems, scientific apparatus, power sources, and a television system. "Luna 9" was launched
12317342
Luna 1


Luna 1, also known as Mechta ( , "lit.": "Dream"), E-1 No.4 and "First Lunar Rover ", was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Earth's Moon, and the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. Intended as an impactor, "Luna 1" was launched as part of the Soviet Luna programme in 1959, however due to an incorrectly timed upper stage burn during its launch, it missed the Moon, in the process becoming the first spacecraft to
3607446
Luna 5


orbit, before the Blok L fired to propel "Luna 5" towards the Moon. "Luna 5" became the first Soviet probe to be successfully launched towards the Moon in two years. Between it and the previous mission to be launched successfully, "Luna 4", there were three launch failures: "E-6 No.6" and "No.5" in 1964 and "Kosmos 60" in 1965. Following the mid-course correction on 10 May, the spacecraft began spinning around its main axis due to a problem in
12317334
Luna E-8-5 No. 402


Luna E-8-5 No.402, also known as Luna Ye-8-5 No.402, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1969C, was a Soviet spacecraft under Luna programme which was lost in a launch failure in 1969. It was a Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the first of at least eleven to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth. It was, along with Luna 15, one of two unsuccessful missions which
13789923
Luna E-1A No.1


Luna E-1A No.1 or E-1 No.5, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1959A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1959. It was a Luna E-1A spacecraft, the first of two to be launched. It was intended to impact the surface of the Moon, and in doing so would have been the first man-made object to reach its surface. Launch was originally scheduled for June 16, but delayed two days after a careless lieutenant had the booster filled with the wrong grade of RP-1 propellant
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Luna programme


which had failed to achieve orbit. This resulted in Western observers assigning their own designations to the missions, for example Luna E-1 No.1, the first failure of 1958 which NASA believed was associated with the Luna programme, was known as "Luna 1958A". NASA identified a spacecraft which it referred to as Luna 1966A as having launched on 30 April 1966, a spacecraft referred to as Luna 1969B as having launched on 15 April 1969, and a spacecraft referred to as Luna 1970B as having launched on 19 February 1970. When
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Luna 3


photos. Luna 3 was radio-controlled from ground stations in the Soviet Union. After launching on a Luna 8K72 (number I1-8) rocket over the North Pole, the Blok-E escape stage was shut down by radio control to put Luna 3 on its course to the Moon. Initial radio contact showed that the signal from the space probe was only about one-half as strong as expected, and the internal temperature was rising. The spacecraft spin axis was reoriented and some equipment was shut down, resulting
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Luna (rocket)


3 spacecraft took the first photographs of the far side of the Moon. The eighth flight of a Luna 8K72 (March 1960) ended 435 seconds after launch when the Blok E upper stage developed insufficient thrust, causing the Luna probe to reenter the atmosphere and burn up. The ninth flight of a Luna 8K72 (April 1960) failed when the Blok G strap-on booster developed only 75% thrust at liftoff, breaking away from the launch vehicle, which then disintegrated, the strap-ons flying in random directions and
2712662
Luna 3


Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 () was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first-ever mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. Though it returned rather poor pictures by later standards, the historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest when they were published around the world, and a tentative "Atlas of the Far Side
3607475
Kosmos 111


Kosmos 111 ( meaning "Cosmos 111") (E-6S series) was the first Soviet attempt to orbit a spacecraft around the Moon. The design was probably similar to the later successful Luna 10 spacecraft. Kosmos 111 was produced in less than a month, one of two spacecraft developed from the E-6 lander bus in a crash program to upstage America's Lunar Orbiter series and to commemorate the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party (held March 1966).. Launched on March 1, 1966 at 11:03:49 UTC via Molniya 8K78M rocket
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Sergei Korolev


becoming the first man-made object to enter the Sun's orbit. A subsequent attempt (Luna E-1A No.1) failed at launch, and then Luna 2 successfully impacted the surface on 14 September 1959, giving the Soviets another first. This was followed just one month later by an even greater success with Luna 3. It was launched only two years after Sputnik 1, and on 7 October 1959 was the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon, which was something the people of earth had never seen beforehand
5326529
Luna 13


Luna 13 (E-6M series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. The Luna 13 spacecraft was launched toward the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and accomplished a soft landing on December 24, 1966, in the region of Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms"). The petal encasement of the spacecraft was opened, antennas were erected, and radio transmissions to Earth began four minutes after the landing. On December 25 and December 26, 1966, the spacecraft television system transmitted panoramas of the nearby
12317360
Luna 18


Luna 18, part of the Ye-8-5 series, was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. "Luna 18" was placed in an Earth parking orbit after it was launched and was then sent towards the Moon. On 7 September 1971, it entered lunar orbit. The spacecraft completed 85 communications sessions and 54 lunar orbits before it was sent towards the lunar surface by use of braking rockets. It impacted the Moon on 11 September 1971, at 3 degrees 34 minutes N, 56 degrees 30 minutes E (
12317393
Luna E-6 No.2


the first spacecraft to be launched in 1963, and consequently the first to be assigned an International Designator, under the new system which had been introduced at the start of the year. The spacecraft consisted of a cylindrical section containing rockets and fuel for maneuvering, attitude control and landing, as well as radio transmitters, and a instrumented probe, which would have been ejected onto the surface after the spacecraft landed, carrying a camera and devices to measure radiation. It was intended to return data on the mechanical characteristics of the lunar
4297995
Luna 3


gravity assist maneuver was first used in 1959 when Luna 3 photographed the far side of Earth's Moon. After launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Luna 3 passed behind the Moon from south to north and headed back to Earth. The gravity of the Moon changed the spacecraft's orbit; also, because of the Moon's own orbital motion, the spacecraft's orbital plane was also changed. The return orbit was calculated so that the spacecraft passed again over the Northern hemisphere where the Soviet ground stations were located. The maneuver relied
3607484
Space Race


able to launch a payload to the Moon. Three secret 1958 attempts to launch Luna E-1-class impactor probes failed. The fourth attempt, Luna 1, launched successfully on January 2, 1959, but missed the Moon. The fifth attempt on June 18 also failed at launch. The Luna 2 successfully impacted the Moon on September 14, 1959. The Luna 3 successfully flew by the Moon and sent back pictures of its far side on October 6, 1959. The US reacted to the Luna program by embarking on the Ranger program
4757923
Luna 7


Luna 7 (E-6 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 7. The "Luna 7" spacecraft was intended to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. However, due to premature retrofire and cutoff of the retrorockets, the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface in Oceanus Procellarum. Unlike its predecessors successfully carried out its mid-course correction on October 5 on the way to the Moon, in anticipation of a soft-landing two days later. However, immediately prior to planned retro
12317338
Luna 9


. The craft landed at The spacecraft bounced several times before coming to rest in Oceanus Procellarum west of Reiner and Marius craters at approximately 7.08 N, 64.37 W on 3 February 1966 at 18:45:30 UT. The spacecraft was developed in the design bureau then known as OKB-1, under Chief Designer Sergei Korolev (who had died before the launch). The first 11 Luna missions were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. At that time the project was transferred to Lavochkin design bureau since OKB-1 was busy with a manned expedition to the Moon
12317346
Luna E-1A No.1


. Luna E-1A No.1 was launched at 08:08 UTC on 18 June 1959 atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch once again ended in failure when the booster suffered a failure of the yaw gyro and veered off its flight path. Ground control issued a manual shutoff command at T+153 seconds. The spacecraft was intended to conduct experiments during its flight towards the Moon. It would also have released gaseous sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be observed from
13485171
Luna 2


Luna 2 (), originally named the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket and nicknamed Lunik 2 in contemporaneous media, was the sixth of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. The spacecraft was launched on 12 September 1959 by the Luna 8K72. It followed a direct path to the Moon. In addition to the radio transmitters sending telemetry information back to Earth, the spacecraft released a sodium gas cloud so the spacecraft's movement could be visually observed. On 13 September 1959, it impacted the Moon's surface east
3607455
RD-0109


the second flight of a Luna 8K72 (October 11, 1958), which was to launch the Luna E-1 No.2 probe and ended 104 seconds after launch when the rocket again disintegrated from vibration. The third flight of a Luna 8K72 (December 4, 1958), which was to launch the Luna E-1 No.3 probe, also ended 245 seconds after launch when the Block-I core stage shut down from loss of engine lubricant. On January 2, 1959, as part of the Luna 8K72's Block-E stage,
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Luna 11


Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It was also called Lunik 11. "Luna 11" was launched towards the Moon from an Earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966. The objectives of the mission included the study of: 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the Moon were completed before the batteries failed on 1 October 1966. This subset of the “second-generation” Luna spacecraft, the Ye-6LF, was designed to take the
12317355
Luna (rocket)


ended 92 seconds after launch when the rocket broke up from longitudinal vibration (a.k.a. POGO), causing the strap-ons to separate from the vehicle, which then crashed downrange. The second flight of a Luna 8K72 (October 1958), which was to launch the Luna E-1 No.2 probe, ended 104 seconds after launch when the rocket again disintegrated from vibration. The third flight of a Luna 8K72 (December 1958), which was to launch the Luna E-1 No.3 probe, ended 245 seconds after launch when the Blok
2712659
Luna E-8-5 No. 402


had been launched by the Soviet Union in a last-ditch attempt to upstage the Apollo 11 landing under Moon race. Luna E-8-5 No.402 was launched at 04:00:07 UTC on 14 June 1969 atop a Proton-K 8K78K carrier rocket with a Blok D upper stage, flying from Site 81/24 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The upper stage failed to ignite, and consequently the spacecraft failed to achieve orbit. Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted sample return mission
13789924
Luna 12


Luna 12 (E-6LF series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 12. Luna 12 was launched towards the Moon from an Earth-orbiting platform and achieved lunar orbit on October 25, 1966. The spacecraft was equipped with a television system that obtained and transmitted photographs of the lunar surface. The photographs contained 1100 scan lines with a maximum resolution of 14.9-19.8 m. Pictures of the lunar surface were returned on October 27, 1966. The number of photographs is not known. Radio transmissions
12317358
Kosmos 60


Kosmos 60 ( meaning "Cosmos 60") was an E-6 series probe, launched by the Soviet Union on March 12, 1965. It was the sixth attempt at a lunar soft-landing mission, with a design similar to that of Luna 4. The spacecraft achieved Earth orbit (apogee 287 km, perigee 201 km, inclination 64.8 degrees, orbital period 89 minutes) but failed to leave orbit for its journey to the Moon due to a failure of the power supply in the control system, and was designated Kosmos
12949917
Surveyor 2


Surveyor 2 was to be the second lunar lander in the uncrewed American Surveyor program to explore the Moon. It was launched September 20, 1966 from Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket. A mid-course correction failure resulted in the spacecraft losing control. Contact was lost with the spacecraft at 9:35 UTC, September 22. On February 3, 1966 Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data to Earth. Several months after, Surveyor 1 launched on May
12572602
Luna 8


Luna 8 (E-6 series), also known as Lunik 8, was a lunar space probe of the Luna program. It was launched in on December 3, 1965 with the objective of achieving a soft landing on the Moon; however, its retrorocket firing occurred too late, and suffered a hard impact on the lunar surface on the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). The mission did complete the experimental testing of its stellar-guidance system and the ground-control of its radio telemetry equipment, its flight trajectory,
12317340
Solar electric propulsion


Solar electric propulsion (SEP) typically refers to the combination of solar cells and an ion drive to propel a spacecraft through outer space. This technology has been exploited in a variety of spacecraft by the European Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency, Indian Space Research Organisation and NASA. SEP is valued for its potential for a high specific impulse, thus allowing less mass for propellant to be launched with a spacecraft and it has been evaluated for mission to Mars. Solar electric propulsion combines solar panels on spacecraft and ion thrusters,
19663908
Lunar orbit


not achieve lunar orbit. Luna 3, launched on October 4, 1959, was the first robotic spacecraft to complete a circumlunar free return trajectory, still not a lunar orbit, but a figure-8 trajectory which swung around the far side of the Moon and returned to the Earth. This craft provided the first pictures of the far side of the Lunar surface. The Soviet Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to actually orbit the Moon in April 1966. It studied micrometeoroid flux, and lunar environment until May 30, 1966. A
13129520
Mars 2M No.521


, along with Mars 2M No.522, which was launched in 1969 as part of the Mars programme. Neither launch was successful. The Mars 2M probes were originally intended to consist of both an orbiter and a lander. Time constraints did not permit the development of a soft lander, so engineers decided to simply use a hard lander that would crash into the Martian surface but gather data during its descent. At first, a modified Luna E-8 bus was to be used for the spacecraft, however it had a number of
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Luna 2


the Ye-1 series of spacecraft with a mass of . Luna missions that failed to successfully launch or achieve good results remained unnamed and were not publicly acknowledged. The first unnamed probe exploded on launch on 23 September 1958. Two more launches were unsuccessfully attempted on 12 October and 4 December. "Luna 1" was the fourth launch attempt and the first partial success of the program. It launched on 2 January 1959 and missed the Moon by . One mission separated "Luna 1" and "Luna 2", a launch failure
3607457
Luna 14


Luna 14 (E-6LS series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program run by the Soviet Union. It was also called Lunik 14. The spacecraft is believed to have been similar to Luna 12 and the instrumentation was similar to that carried by Luna 10. It provided data for studies of the interaction of the earth and lunar masses, the lunar gravitational field, the propagation and stability of radio communications to the spacecraft at different orbital positions, solar charged particles and cosmic rays, and the motion of the Moon.
12317364
Luna E-3 No.2


they carried higher-resolution cameras, and were intended to make closer flybys. Luna E-3 No.2 was launched at 16:07:41 UTC on 16 April 1960, atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Blok-B strap-on booster reached only 75% thrust and broke away from the booster almost immediately at liftoff. The launch vehicle climbed to an altitude of about 200 meters before the imbalanced thrust caused it to pitch over, the remaining strap-ons breaking off and scattering in random
13485217
Luna 10


Luna 10 (E-6S series) was a 1966 Soviet Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon. Scientific instruments included a gamma-ray spectrometer for energies between 0.3—3 MeV (50–500 pJ), a triaxial magnetometer, a meteorite detector, instruments for solar-plasma studies, and devices for measuring infrared emissions from the Moon and radiation conditions of the lunar environment. Gravitational studies were also conducted.br Luna 10 conducted extensive research in lunar orbit, gathering important data on
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Luna programme


were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched. Those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations. The estimated cost of the Luna programme was about $4.5 billion. "Luna 1" (January 1959) missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to fall into orbit around the Sun. "Luna 2" (September 1959) mission successfully hit the Moon
12317319
Moon landing


compared to that of the U.S. This perception was reinforced by a string of subsequent rapid-fire Soviet space achievements. In 1959, the R-7 rocket was used to launch the first escape from Earth's gravity into a solar orbit, the first crash impact onto the surface of the Moon, and the first photography of the never-before-seen far side of the Moon. These were the Luna 1, Luna 2, and Luna 3 spacecraft. The U.S. response to these Soviet achievements was to greatly accelerate previously existing military
16273819
Luna (rocket)


instead passed within of the Moon's surface 4 January 1959, and then went into orbit around the Sun between the orbits of Earth and Mars. The fifth flight of a Luna 8K72 (July 1959) ended 220 seconds after launch due to a guidance malfunction of the Blok A core stage, leading to RSO destruct. Luna 2 was launched by a Luna 8K72 12 September 1959. It was the first spacecraft to impact the lunar surface. The final successful launch of a Luna 8K72 took place 4 October 1959. The Luna
2712661
Luna 6


low Earth parking orbit, before the upper stage propelled the spacecraft into a heliocentric orbit passing the Moon. The "Luna 6" mission proceeded as planned until a scheduled mid-course correction late on 9 June. Although the spacecraft's S5.5A main engine ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until its propellant supply was exhausted. An investigation later determined that the problem had been due to a command which had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down. Despite the
12317337
Luna 23


" landed several hundred meters away and successfully returned samples. The asteroid-like object 2010 KQ is believed to be a rocket that parted the "Luna 23" module after launch. "Luna 23" was the first modified lunar sample return spacecraft, designed to return a deep core sample of the Moon's surface (hence the change in index from Ye-8-5 to Ye-8-5M). While "Luna 16" and "Luna 20" had returned samples from a depth of 0.3 meters, the new spacecraft
12317414
Luna 2


of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body. Prior to impact, two sphere-shaped pennants with USSR and the launch date engraved in Cyrillic were detonated, sending pentagonal shields in all directions. "Luna 2" did not detect radiation or magnetic belts around the Moon. "Luna 1" and the three spacecraft of Luna programme before it were part of
3607456
Mars 2M No.522


the cosmodrome as a pool of spilled nitrogen tetroxide was blocking one of the entryways out, while other entryway was blocked by the still-intact second stage of the rocket. By the time this had happened, the alignment of Earth and Mars necessary to launch spacecraft had ended, and the Soviets were unable to launch any further Mars probes until 1971. It also resulted in delays to a number of Luna spacecraft scheduled for launch in 1969.The accident left a deep impression on Soviet military personnel attending the launch and helped spur the development
16157786
Luna E-1 No.1


" of the metal which could be observed from Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked. Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted lunar impact mission. Chief Designer Sergei Korolev's ambitious space plans were being continually frustrated by design changes to the R-7 missile, launch failures, and the fact that the ICBM program took priority. On 10 July 1958, a test version of the Luna booster was flown which had a dummy upper stage (live avionics, but no
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Gravity assist


in 1959 when Luna 3 photographed the far side of Earth's Moon. The Mariner 10 probe was the first spacecraft to use the gravitational slingshot effect to reach another planet, passing by Venus on 5 February 1974 on its way to becoming the first spacecraft to explore Mercury. , Voyager 1 is over from the Sun, and is in interstellar space. It gained the energy to escape the Sun's gravity completely by performing slingshot maneuvers around Jupiter and Saturn. The "Galileo" spacecraft was launched by NASA in 1989 aboard Space
20951559
Luna 17


Luna 17 (Ye-8 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 17. It deployed the first robotic rover onto the surface of the Moon. "Luna 17" was launched from an Earth parking orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on 15 November 1970. The spacecraft softly landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains. The spacecraft had dual ramps by which the payload, "Lunokhod 1", descended to the lunar surface. "Lunokhod 1" was a lunar vehicle formed
12317387
Luna 3


resistant 35 mm isochrome film. The 200 mm objective could image the full disk of the Moon and the 500 mm could take an image of a region on the surface. The camera was fixed in the spacecraft and pointing was achieved by rotating the craft itself. Luna 3 was the first successful three-axis stabilized spacecraft. During most of the mission, the spacecraft was spin stabilized, but for photography of the Moon, the spacecraft oriented one axis toward the Sun and then a photocell was used to detect the Moon and
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Luna E-3 No.1


they carried higher resolution cameras, and were intended to make closer flybys. Luna E-3 No.1 was launched at 15:06:45 UTC on 15 April 1960, atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The core stage and strap-ons of the 8K72 booster performed perfectly and Blok E staging and engine start went well at first, but about halfway through its burn, engine thrust and fuel system pressure began dropping, followed by cutoff. Velocity was about 300 feet per second too low to escape the
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Luna 15


Luna 15 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that crashed into the Moon on July 21, 1969. On July 21, 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, an unmanned Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to return lunar soil back to Earth with a goal to outstrip the US in achieving a sample return in the Moon race
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Moon landing


was launched on 7 September 2013. The mission ended on 18 April 2014, when the spacecraft's controllers intentionally crashed LADEE into the far side of the Moon, which, later, was determined to be near the eastern rim of Sundman V crater. On 14 December 2013 at 13:12 UTC Chang'e 3 soft-landed a rover on the Moon. This was the first lunar soft landing since Luna 24 on 22 August 1976. On 3 January 2019 at 2:26 UTC Chang'e 4 became the first spacecraft to land on the far side
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Solar wind


In January 1959, the Soviet spacecraft "Luna 1" first directly observed the solar wind and measured its strength, using hemispherical ion traps. The discovery, made by Konstantin Gringauz, was verified by "Luna 2", "Luna 3" and by the more distant measurements of "Venera 1". Three years later a similar measurement was performed by Neugebauer and collaborators using the "Mariner 2" spacecraft. In the late 1990s, the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer (UVCS) instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft observed the acceleration
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Proton-K


. Many launches used an upper stage to boost the payload into a higher orbit. Blok D upper stages were used on forty flights, the majority of which were for the Luna and Zond programmes. Ten flights used the Blok D-1, mostly to launch spacecraft towards Venus. Blok D-2 upper stages were used three times, with the Fobos 1, Fobos 2 and Mars 96 spacecraft. The Blok DM upper stage was used on 66 launches. The most commonly used upper stage was the Blok DM-2, which was used on 109
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Progress 3


Progress 3 was an unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union in 1978 to resupply the Salyut 6 space station. It used the Progress 7K-TG configuration, and was the third Progress mission to Salyut 6. It carried supplies for the EO-2 crew aboard Salyut 6, as well as equipment for conducting scientific research, and fuel for adjusting the station's orbit and performing manoeuvres. Progress 3 was a Progress 7K-TG spacecraft. The third of forty three to be launched, it had the serial number 103.
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Selenography


, the images were of very poor quality, but as with the telescope 200 years earlier, their quality rapidly improved. By 1890 lunar photography had become a recognized subdiscipline of astronomy. The 20th century witnessed more advances in selenography. In 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 transmitted the first photographs of the far side of the Moon, giving the first view of it in history. The United States of America launched the Ranger spacecraft between 1961 and 1965 to photograph the lunar surface until the instant they impacted it, the Lunar
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RD-0109


the engine RD-0105 finally performed its first successful mission, the launch of Luna 1. It was also the first deep space engine ignition, the first spacecraft to reach escape velocity and, while the spacecraft missed the Moon with which it was supposed to crash, it became the first human made object to enter a heliocentric orbit. On September 14, 1959, the RD-0105 propelled Luna 2 towards the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on
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Lunar lander


cause damage. The first soft lunar landing, performed by the Soviet Luna 9 probe, was achieved by first slowing the spacecraft to a suitable speed and altitude, then ejecting a payload containing the scientific experiments. The payload was stopped on the Lunar surface using airbags, which provided cushioning as it fell. Luna 13 used a similar method. Airbag methods are not typical. For example, NASA's Surveyor 1 probe, launched around the same time as Luna 9, did not use an airbag for final touchdown. Instead,
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Luna 10


. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on April 3, 1966 and completed its first orbit 3 hours later (on April 4, Moscow time). After a midcourse correction on 1 April, Luna 10, the second of two hastily prepared Soviet Ye-6S probes (that is, the backup), successfully entered lunar orbit two days later at 18:44 UT. A 245-kilogram instrument compartment separated from the main bus, which was in a 350 x 1,000-kilometer orbit inclined at 71.9° to the lunar equator.br Luna 10 was battery powered and operated
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Luna E-3 No.1


Earth's gravity, and the Blok E and probe fell back into the atmosphere and burned up. The cause of the failure was unclear until further examination of telemetry data found that the RP-1 tank in the Blok E stage was only partially filled, a careless mistake by pad crews that caused the booster to literally and figuratively run out of gas before it could escape Earth orbit. As a result, the spacecraft failed to achieve orbit. Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been
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Soyuz T-3


Soyuz T-3 was launched on 27 November 1980, and carried the 15th expedition to the Salyut 6 space station. The Soyuz T-3 spacecraft was the first Soyuz spacecraft since 1971 that carried three cosmonauts. Although the main objective of the crew's mission was to refurbish Salyut 6, part of their mission also involved testing their spacecraft. During their brief stay on Salyut 6, the crew performed experiments using the Splav and Kristall units, and studied biological material which had been carried abroad their Soyuz using the Svetoblok and Oazis units. Much
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Moon landing


as a national turning point and instrumental in allowing the key 1965 NASA budget appropriation to pass through the United States Congress intact without a reduction in funds for the Apollo crewed Moon landing program. Subsequent successes with Ranger 8 and Ranger 9 further buoyed U.S. hopes. The Luna 9 spacecraft, launched by the Soviet Union, performed the first successful soft Moon landing on 3 February, 1966. Airbags protected its ejectable capsule which survived an impact speed of over . Luna 13 duplicated this feat with a similar Moon landing on 24 December 1966
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Luna E-1 No.1


on the 17th, but Korolev instead decided to let the US flight go first on the reasoning that the Luna probe had a shorter trajectory to travel and would reach the Moon first. After that launch ended in a booster explosion, he decided to postpone the flight until the glitches with the 8K72 and Luna could be worked out. Luna E-1 No.1 was launched on 23 September 1958 atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Ninety two seconds after launch, longitudinal resonance within the rocket's
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Earth Escape Explorer


Earth Escape Explorer (CU-E) is a nanosatellite of the 6-Unit CubeSat format that will demonstrate long-distance communications while in heliocentric orbit. The "Earth Escape Explorer" spacecraft is a student-driven effort at University of Colorado Boulder to design and build the spacecraft as part of the NASA CubeQuest Challenge. It will be one of thirteen CubeSats to be carried with the Artemis 1 mission into a heliocentric orbit in cislunar space on the maiden flight of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, scheduled to launch in
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Progress M1-3


Progress M1-3, identified by NASA as Progress 1 or 1P, was the first Progress spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. It was a Progress-M1 11F615A55 spacecraft, with the serial number 251. Progress M1-3 was launched by a Soyuz-U carrier rocket from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Launch occurred at 16:26:42 GMT on 6 August 2000. The spacecraft docked with the Aft port of the "Zvezda" module at 20:12:56 GMT on 8 August. It remained docked for three months before undocking
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Luna 23


Luna 23 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program developed by the Soviet Union. "Luna 23" was a Soviet Moon lander mission which was intended to return a lunar sample to Earth. Launched to the Moon by a Proton-K/D, the spacecraft tipped over on its side and was damaged upon landing in Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). The sample collecting apparatus could not operate and no samples were returned. The lander continued transmissions for three days after landing. In 1976, "Luna 24
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Luna 20


Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility), 120 km from where "Luna 16" had landed. While on the lunar surface, the panoramic television system was operated. Lunar samples were obtained by means of an extendable drilling apparatus. The ascent stage of "Luna 20" was launched from the lunar surface on 22 February 1972 carrying 30 grams of collected lunar samples in a sealed capsule. It landed in the Soviet Union on 25 February 1972. The lunar samples were recovered the following day. This was the eighth Soviet spacecraft launched
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Korabl-Sputnik 3


Korabl-Sputnik 3 ( meaning "Ship-Satellite 3") or Vostok-1K No.3, also known as Sputnik 6 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft which was launched in 1960. It was a test flight of the Vostok spacecraft, carrying two dogs; Pcholka and Mushka ("little bee" and "little fly"; affectionate diminutives of "pchela" and "mukha", respectively), as well as a television camera and scientific instruments. Korabl-Sputnik 3 was launched at 07:30:04 UTC on 1
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Lander (spacecraft)


spacecraft, previously known as the "Lunar Surface Access Module" or "LSAM", was the planned lander for the Constellation program, prior to the cancellation of Project Constellation. Russia has plans for Luna-Grunt mission to return samples from the Moon by 2021. The Chinese Chang'e 3 mission and its Jade Rabbit rover landed on 14 December 2013. Then China plans to repeat lander with rover in Chang'e 4 mission after 2015 that will followed by Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6 sample return missions in 2017 and before 2020. The
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Luna 22


Luna 22 (Ye-8-LS series) was an unmanned space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 22. "Luna 22" was a lunar orbiter mission. The spacecraft carried imaging cameras and also had the objectives of studying the Moon's magnetic field, surface gamma ray emissions and composition of lunar surface rocks, and the gravitational field, as well as micrometeorites and cosmic rays. Luna 22 was launched into Earth parking orbit and then to the Moon. It was inserted into a circular lunar orbit on 2
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LK (spacecraft)


the Blok D engine. Once slowed from orbital velocity and placed on a trajectory to the vicinity of the landing site by the Blok D, the LK would separate from the Blok D and continue the descent and landing using its Blok E stage on the LK for terminal deceleration and landing. An earlier unmanned probe of the Luna programme, a Lunokhod would be used to select a suitable area, and then act as a beacon for the LK. A backup LK would then be launched to the landing site. The third step
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Lunokhod programme


unmanned lunar rovers successfully landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod programme. The spacecraft which carried "Lunokhod 1" was named "Luna 17". "Lunokhod 1" was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world. "Luna 17" was launched on November 10, 1970 at 14:44:01 UTC. After reaching Earth parking orbit, the final stage of "Luna 17"s launching rocket fired to place it into a trajectory towards the Moon (November 10, 1970 at 14:54 UTC
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Gagarin's Start


its maiden voyage from LC-1 on 15 May 1957. On 4 October 1957 the pad was used to launch the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. Manned spaceflights launched from the site include Yuri Gagarin's flight, Valentina Tereshkova's flight, and numerous other human spaceflight missions, including all Soviet and Russian manned spaceflights to Mir. The pad was also used to launch Luna program spacecraft, Mars probe program spacecraft, Venera program spacecraft, many Cosmos satellites and others. From 1957 through 1966 the site hosted ready-to
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Spacecraft magnetometer


magnetometers, this configuration had considerable interference. With this spacecraft, the sun induced magnetic oscillations and this allowed the continued use of the magnetometer after the sun sensor failed. Explorer 10 had two fluxgate magnetometers but is technically classified as a dual technique since it also had a rubidium vapor magnetometer. The Sputnik-3 had a vector fluxgate magnetometer, however because the orientation of the spacecraft could not be determined the direction vector for the magnetic field could not be determined. Three axis magnetometers were used on Luna 1, Luna 2, Pioneer Venus
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International Ultraviolet Explorer


cameras for the spectrographs as well as software for the scientific instruments. ESA provided the solar arrays to power the spacecraft as well as a ground observing facility in Villafranca del Castillo, Spain. NASA contributed the telescope, spectrograph, and spacecraft as well as launching facilities and a second ground observatory in Greenbelt, Maryland at the Goddard Space Flight Center. According to the agreement setting up the project the observing time would be divided between the contributing agencies with 2/3 to NASA, 1/6 to ESA and 1/6 to the UK's Science Research
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Carl E. Duckett


reconnaissance and "Molniya" communication spacecraft; "Voshkov" and the first spacewalk and "Venera" missions past Venus in 1965; and the "Luna" soft landing on the moon and the transmission of surface images in 1966 that put the Soviets ahead in the moon race. Of perhaps greater concern were Soviet ballistic missiles: third-generation ICBMs (NATO designations SS-9, SS-11, and SS-13), as well as submarine-launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) that could easily reach U.S. territory. In addition
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Atlas E/F


. Previous Atlas-Agena launches were launched on Atlas D or Atlas SLV-3 first stages, but the final Atlas-Agena used an Atlas E/F. An Atlas E/F with an Altair-3A upper stage was used to launch three Stacksat spacecraft on 11 April 1990. The rocket was capable of placing of payload into low Earth orbit. A Burner-2 upper stage was used on an Atlas E/F to launch the Radsat and Radcat satellites on 2 October 1972. The rocket had a payload capacity of to low Earth orbit.
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ATS-6


a standard instrument aboard weather satellites, and pioneered direct broadcast TV. ATS-6 was a precursor to many technologies still in use today on geostationary spacecraft: large deployable antenna, 3-axis attitude control with slewing capabilities, antenna pointing through RF sensing, electric propulsion, meteorological radiometer in geostationary orbit, and direct to home broadcasting. It is also possible that ATS-6 was a forerunner of the large ELINT satellites such as Mentor. ATS-6 was launched on May 30, 1974, by a Titan III-C launch vehicle. The spacecraft was inserted
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Hiten


The Hiten Spacecraft (ひてん, ), given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft A), part of the MUSES Program, was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan and launched on January 24, 1990. It was Japan's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. Hiten was
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Atlas (rocket family)


1962. Beginning in 1963, the liquid hydrogen-fueled Centaur upper stage was also used on dozens of Atlas launches. NASA launched the Surveyor program lunar lander spacecraft and most of the Mars-bound Mariner program spacecraft with Atlas-Centaur launch vehicles. Following retirement as an ICBM, the Atlas-E, along with the Atlas-F, was refurbished for orbital launches. The last Atlas E/F spacecraft launch was conducted on 24 March 1995, using a rocket which had originally been built as an Atlas-E.
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Kosmos 96


with two other spacecraft which were launched as Venera 2 and Venera 3, to explore Venus. A Molniya carrier rocket was used to launch 3MV-4 No.6. The launch occurred from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 03:21 UTC on 23 November 1965. Late in third stage flight, a fuel line ruptured, causing one of the engine's combustion chambers to explode. The rocket tumbled out of control, and as a result the fourth stage, a Blok-L, failed to ignite. The spacecraft was deployed into a low
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Luna 15


launch and was then sent toward the Moon. After a mid-course correction the day after launch, Luna 15 entered lunar orbit at 10:00 UT on 17 July 1969. The spacecraft remained in lunar orbit for two days while controllers checked all on-board systems and performed two orbital manoeuvres. After completing 86 communications sessions and 52 orbits of the Moon at various inclinations and altitudes, it began its descent. Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin had already set foot on the Moon when Luna 15 fired its main retrorocket engine to initiate descent
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Luna 22


June 1974. The spacecraft made many orbit adjustments over its 18-month lifetime in order to optimize the operation of various experiments, lowering the perilune to as little as 25 km. Maneuvering fuel was exhausted on 2 September and the mission was ended in early November. "Luna 22" was the second of two "advanced" lunar orbiters (the first being Luna 19) designed to conduct extensive scientific surveys from orbit. Launched about a year after the termination of "Lunokhod 2" operations on the lunar surface, "Luna 20
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2019 in spaceflight


This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2019. The Chinese probe Chang'e 4 made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January. China also intends to launch Chang'e 5 in December, the first sample-return mission to the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976, and to test a new generation of crewed spacecraft. Chang'e 5 will use the recently developed Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket. India has launched the delayed Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter/lander/rover in July. Some of the
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NEAR Shoemaker


the first APL spacecraft to use solid-state data recorders for mass storage—previous APL spacecraft used magnetic tape recorders or magnetic cores. The solid state recorders are constructed from 16 Mbit IBM Luna-C DRAMs. One recorder has 1.1 gigabits of storage, the other has 0.67 gigabits. The NEAR mission was the first launch of NASA's Discovery Program, a series of small-scale spacecraft designed to proceed from development to flight in under three years for a cost of less than $150 million. The construction, launch
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Luna E-1 No.2


Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked. Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted Lunar impact mission. Facing continued political pressure to beat the US, Sergei Korolev lost his temper and exclaimed "Do you think only American rockets explode!?" Once again, he knew that the Pioneer 1 probe was set for launch on October 11, but again decided to wait. Just like with the attempt in August, the US Moon shot failed to attain orbit.
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