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Launch Partial Failure
Liftoff Time (GMT)
05:44:52
Saturday December 6, 1958
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Maiden flight of Juno II. Premature first stage cutoff and erroneous angle during orbital insertion resulted in failure to reach orbit. Catalogued despite being on a suborbital trajectory. Returned data on radiation between the Earth and Moon.
This spacecraft was intended as a lunar probe, but failed to go past the Moon and into a heliocentric orbit as planned, but did reach an altitude of 102,360 km before falling back to Earth. The revised spacecraft objectives were to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belt using two Geiger-Müller tubes and to test the trigger mechanism for a lunar photographic experiment.
Trans Lunar Injection
1 Payload
6 kilograms
1st
Mission
1st
Mission of 1958
27th
Orbital launch attempt