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 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 1975. It was a Luna E-8-5M spacecraft, the second of three to be launched. It was intended to perform a

soft landing Soft landing may refer to: *Soft landing (aeronautics) A soft landing is any type of aircraft, rocket or spacecraft landing that does not result in significant damage to or destruction of the vehicle or its payload, as opposed to a hard la ...

on 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 ...

, collect a sample of

lunar soil Lunar soil is the fine fraction of the regolith found on the surface of the Moon. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial soil. The physical properties of lunar soil are primarily the result of mechanical disintegra ...

, and return it to the Earth. Luna E-8-5M No.412 was launched at 04:04:56 UTC on 16 October 1975 atop a

Proton-K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and ...

8K78K

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

with a

Blok D-1 Blok D (russian: Блок Д meaning Block D) is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched roc ...

upper stage, flying from Site 81/23 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 ...

. The Blok D stage experienced a failure of the LOX turbopump and so the probe did not reach orbit. 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 Mare Crisium (Latin ''crisium'', the "Sea of Crises") is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. The basin is of the Pre-Imbrian period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago. Characteristics Mare Cri ...

, which was the target for both the

Luna 23 ''Luna 23'' was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program developed by the Soviet Union. Overview ''Luna 23'' was a Soviet Moon lander mission which was intended to return a lunar sample to Earth. Launched to the Moon by a Proton-K/ D, the ...

and

Luna 24 ''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...

missions; which landed a few hundred metres apart. Since its launch was unsuccessful, it was not acknowledged in the Soviet

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

at the time.

References

External links

RussianSpaceWeb.com
1975 in the Soviet Union 1975 in spaceflight Luna programme Sample return missions Missions to the Moon Spacecraft launched in 1975 {{USSR-spacecraft-stub