Ye-8-5M n°412

Launch Failure

Liftoff Time (GMT)

04:04:56

Thursday October 16, 1975

Mission Details

Launch Notes

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

Ye-8-5M n°412

Wiki

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.

Trans Lunar Injection

1 Payload

5,750 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


50th

Mission

4th

Mission of 1975

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center


969th

Mission

73rd

Mission of 1975

1975


104th

Orbital launch attempt