L1 n°4L

Launch Failure

Liftoff Time (GMT)

22:11:54

Wednesday September 27, 1967

Mission Details

Launch Notes

One of the 6 RD-253 engines of the first stage fails to ignite, and Proton blasts off with only 5 engines. 100 seconds after the launch, the rocket breaks up in flight, and falls down a few kilometers from the launch pad.

L1 n°4L

Wiki

The 7K-L1 is a Soviet lunar spacecraft, conceived in the 60s. It was intended to enable Soviet cosmonauts to fly over the Moon, as Apollo 8 did. The spacecraft is based on the architecture of Soyuz, to which it was removed the orbital module. The 7K-L1, whose development was delayed, never flew with a crew, the program having been cancelled shortly after the first lunar missions of Apollo. However, the first living beings to fly over the Moon, turtles, were transported in this vessel during the Zond-5 mission. The spacecraft has a mass ranging between 5200kg and 5700kg depending on the mission. It has a total length of 4796mm and a maximum diameter of 2720mm. The wingspan once the solar panels are deployed is 9m. The spacecraft can endure missions of a maximum duration of eight to ten days.

Trans Lunar Injection

1 Payload

5,390 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Proton-K/Block D

Active 1967 to 1976

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center logo

Manufacturer

Khrunichev

Rocket

Height: 56.14m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 18,900 kg

GTO: 9,000 kg

Liftoff Thrust

8,840 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 3.9m

Height: 8.9m

Stages

4

Launch Site

Site 81/23

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

11 days 23 hours

Stats

Proton-K


3rd

Mission

3rd

Mission of 1967

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center


272nd

Mission

53rd

Mission of 1967

1967


104th

Orbital launch attempt