''Luna 7'' (E-6 or Ye-6 series) was an
uncrewed space mission of the
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 ...
Luna program
The Luna programme (from the Russian word " 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 accompli ...
, also called Lunik 7.
Mission
The ''Luna 7'' spacecraft was intended to achieve a soft landing 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 ...
. However, due to premature retrofire and cutoff of the retrorockets, the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface in
Oceanus Procellarum
Oceanus Procellarum ( ; from ) is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Procellarum is the largest of the maria ("s ...
.
Unlike its predecessors, Luna 7 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-fire during the approach to the lunar surface, the spacecraft suddenly lost
attitude control
Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...
and failed to regain it. Automatic programmed systems then prevented the main engine from firing. As controllers observed helplessly, ''Luna 7'' plummeted to the lunar surface at a very high speed, crashing at 22:08:24 UT on October 7, 1965, west of the
Kepler crater, relatively near the actual intended target. Impact coordinates were .
Later investigation indicated that the optical sensor of the
astronavigation system had been set at the wrong angle and had lost sight of Earth during the critical attitude-control maneuver.
It was the tenth consecutive failure in the
Ye-6 program.
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 07
Spacecraft launched in 1965
1965 in the Soviet Union
Spacecraft that impacted the Moon
1965 on the Moon