Luna E-1 No.3,
sometimes identified by NASA as ''Luna 1958C'',
was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
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 third of four to be launched,
all of which were involved in launch failures.
It was intended to impact the surface of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface.
The spacecraft was intended to release of
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
, 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.
Luna E-1 No.3 was launched on 4 December 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 ...
.
Two hundred and forty five seconds into the flight, a
hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3% ...
pump seized up due to loss of lubrication, which caused the rocket's core stage engines to fail.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luna E-1 No.3
Luna programme
Spacecraft launched in 1958