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''Luna 5'', or ''E-6 No.10'' (Ye-6 series), was an uncrewed
Following the mid-course correction on 10 May, the spacecraft began spinning around its main axis due to a problem in a flotation gyroscope in the I-100 guidance system unit. A subsequent attempt to fire the main engine failed because of ground control error, and the engine never fired. As a result of these failures, the soft landing attempt failed, and ''Luna 5'' impacted the Moon. The place of impact was first announced as (coast of Mare Nubium), but later it was estimated as (near crater
Zarya – Luna programme chronology
{{Orbital launches in 1965 Luna 05 Spacecraft launched in 1965 1965 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft that impacted the Moon May 1965 1965 on the Moon
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
spacecraft intended to land on the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
as part of the Luna programme
The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Moon, Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The programme acc ...
. 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.
Launch
''Luna 5'' was launched by a Molniya-M carrier rocket, flying from Site 1/5 at theBaikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...
. Liftoff occurred at 07:49:37 UTC on 9 May 1965. The spacecraft and Blok L upper stage entered a low Earth parking orbit
A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a spacecraft. A launch vehicle follows a trajectory to the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then engines fire again to enter the final desired trajectory.
An alternative trajec ...
, 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.
Failure
Following the mid-course correction on 10 May, the spacecraft began spinning around its main axis due to a problem in a flotation gyroscope in the I-100 guidance system unit. A subsequent attempt to fire the main engine failed because of ground control error, and the engine never fired. As a result of these failures, the soft landing attempt failed, and ''Luna 5'' impacted the Moon. The place of impact was first announced as (coast of Mare Nubium), but later it was estimated as (near crater Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...
). It was the second Soviet spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, following ''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, E-1 No.7. It was the first spacecraft Moon landi ...
'' in 1959. The Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory registered television images of the failed landing noted that shown it produced a plume which was visible for ten minutes. A 2017 analysis of the reprocessed images allowed to refine the impact coordinates, provide an altitude estimate of 3.7−3.9 km for the generated gas cloud and corroborate estimations published for the 2009 LCROSS impact.
See also
*List of artificial objects on the Moon
This is a partial list of artificial materials left on the Moon, many during the missions of the Apollo program. The table below does not include lesser Apollo mission artificial objects, such as a hammer and other tools, Laser Ranging Retroflect ...
* List of missions to the Moon
Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959.
The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth ...
References
External links
Zarya – Luna programme chronology
{{Orbital launches in 1965 Luna 05 Spacecraft launched in 1965 1965 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft that impacted the Moon May 1965 1965 on the Moon