Luna 11

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

08:03:21

Wednesday August 24, 1966

Mission Details

Luna 11

Wiki

Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It was also called Lunik 11. Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon from an Earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966. 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the Moon were completed before the batteries failed on 1 October 1966. This subset of the “second-generation” Luna spacecraft, the Ye-6LF, was designed to take the first photographs of the surface of the Moon from lunar orbit. A secondary objective was to obtain data on mass concentrations (“mascons”) on the Moon first detected by Luna 10. Using the Ye-6 bus, a suite of scientific instruments (plus an imaging system similar to the one used on Zond 3) replaced the small lander capsule used on the soft-landing flights. The resolution of the photos was 15 to 20 meters. A technological experiment included testing the efficiency of gear transmission in vacuum as a test for a future lunar rover. Luna 11, launched only two weeks after the U.S. Lunar Orbiter, entered lunar orbit at 21:49 UT on 27 August. Parameters were 160 x 1,193 kilometers. During the mission, the TV camera failed to return usable images because the spacecraft lost proper orientation to face the lunar surface when a foreign object was lodged in the nozzle of one of the attitude-control thrusters. The other instruments functioned without fault before the mission formally ended on 1 October 1966 after the power supply had been depleted.

Lunar orbit

1 Payload

1,640 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Molniya-M/Block L

Active 1965 to 1975

RKK Energiya logo

Manufacturer

RKK Energiya

Rocket

Height: 44.23m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 6,200 kg

GTO: 2,400 kg

Liftoff Thrust

4,391 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 2.58m

Height: 6.74m

Stages

4

Strap-ons

4

Launch Site

Site 31/6

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

47 hr 9 min

Stats

Molniya-M


5th

Mission

4th

Mission of 1966

RKK Energiya


201st

Mission

36th

Mission of 1966

1966


85th

Orbital launch attempt