Luna E-1 No.2,
sometimes identified by
NASA as Luna 1958B,
was a
Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1958. It was a
Luna E-1
Luna commonly refers to:
* Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin
* Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon
Luna may also refer to:
Places Philippines
* Luna, Apayao
* Luna, Isabela
* Luna, La Union
* Luna, San Jose
Romania
...
spacecraft, the second of four to be launched,
all of which were involved in launch failures.
It was intended to impact the surface of the
Moon, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface.
The spacecraft was intended to release of
sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be observed from Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked.
Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted Lunar impact mission.
Facing continued political pressure to beat the US,
Sergei Korolev lost his temper and exclaimed "Do you think only American rockets explode!?" Once again, he knew that the
Pioneer 1 probe was set for launch on October 11, but again decided to wait. Just like with the attempt in August, the US Moon shot failed to attain orbit.
Luna E-1 No.2 was launched on 11 October 1958 atop a
Luna 8K72
carrier rocket,
flying from
Site 1/5 at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
.
One hundred and four seconds after launch,
longitudinal resonance
A longitudinal mode of a resonant cavity is a particular standing wave pattern formed by waves confined in the cavity. The longitudinal modes correspond to the wavelengths of the wave which are reinforced by constructive interference after ma ...
within the rocket's strap-on booster rockets caused the vehicle to disintegrate.
This was the same problem which had caused the loss of
Luna E-1 No.1
Luna E-1 No.1, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958A, was a Soviet Luna E-1 spacecraft which was intended to impact the Moon. It did not accomplish this objective as it was lost in a launch failure. It was the first of four E-1 missions to b ...
three weeks earlier.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luna E-1 No.2
Luna programme
Spacecraft launched in 1958