Status
Partial Failure
Cosmos 111
Launch Time
Tue Mar 01, 1966 11:03 UTC
Tue Mar 01, 1966 11:03 UTC
The mission was a failure. The Blok-L upper stage lost roll control and failed to send the spacecraft on a lunar trajectory. It re-entered the Earth's atmosphere two days later.
Rocket
Mission Details
Cosmos 111
Cosmos 111 was the first Soviet attempt to orbit a spacecraft around the Moon. The design was probably similar to the later successful Luna 10 spacecraft. Cosmos 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).
Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 1,500.0 kg
Lunar orbit
Location
Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Stats
1966
19th orbital launch attempt
Molniya-M
3rd mission
2nd mission of 1966