NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Failure

Ye-8-5M n°412

Launch Time
Thu Oct 16, 1975 04:04 UTC

Block D failed to ignite, due to the poor quality of the RD-58 LOX turbopump.

Rocket

Proton-K/Block D
RVSN USSR
Status: Retired
Liftoff Thrust: 8,840 kN
Payload to LEO: 18,900 kg
Payload to GTO: 9,000 kg
Stages: 4
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 56.14 m
Fairing Diameter: 3.9 m
Fairing Height: 8.9 m

Mission Details

Ye-8-5M n°412

Luna E-8-5M No.412, also known as Luna Ye-8-5M No.412, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1975A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1975. It was a 5,300 kg Luna E-8-5M spacecraft, the second of three to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth.

Luna E-8-5M No.412 was launched atop a Proton-K 8K78K launch vehicle with a Blok D-1 upper stage, flying from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted sample return mission. They believed that it was intended to land in Mare Crisium, which was the target for both the Luna 23 and Luna 24 missions; which landed a few hundred metres apart. Since its launch was unsuccessful, it was not acknowledged in the Soviet press at the time.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 5,750.0 kg
Trans Lunar Injection

Location

Site 81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Stats

1975

104th orbital launch attempt

Proton-K

50th mission
4th mission of 1975
14th failed mission