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
Luna commonly refers to:
* Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin
* Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon
Luna may also refer to:
Places Philippines
* Luna, Apayao
* Luna, Isabela
* Luna, La Union
* Luna, San Jose
Romania
...
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 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.
Luna E-1 No.3 was launched on 4 December 1958 atop a
Luna 8K72
carrier rocket,
flying from
Site 1/5 at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
.
Two hundred and forty five seconds into the flight, a
hydrogen peroxide pump seized up due to loss of lubrication, which caused the rocket's core stage engines to fail.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luna E-1 No.3
Luna programme
Spacecraft launched in 1958