''Luna 6'', or E-6 No.7 (Ye-6 series) was an uncrewed

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 intended to perform a landing 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 ...

as part of the

Luna program The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, ...

. Due to the failure of a mid-course correction manoeuvre, ''Luna 6'' failed to land, instead flying past the Moon at a distance of .

Launch

''Luna 6'' was launched by a

Molniya-M The Molniya-M (russian: Молния, meaning "lightning"), designation 8K78M, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) launch vehicle derived from the R-7 Semyorka Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The original 8K78 booster had been the ...

carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

. Liftoff occurred at 07:40 UTC on 8 June 1965, with the spacecraft and

Blok L Blok may refer to: *Blok (surname) *Blok (comics), the fictional superhero of the DC Comics universe *Blok M, downtown shopping area in Jakarta, Indonesia *Mega Bloks, plastic building blocks produced by Mega Bloks, Incorporated *The Vlaams Blok (D ...

upper stage entering a low Earth

parking orbit A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a spacecraft. A launch vehicle boosts into the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then fires again to enter the final desired trajectory. The alternative to a parking orbit is ''di ...

, before the upper stage propelled the spacecraft into a

heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun ...

passing the Moon.

Failure

The ''Luna 6'' mission proceeded as planned until a scheduled mid-course correction late on 9 June. Although the spacecraft's S5.5A main engine ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until its propellant supply was exhausted. An investigation later determined that the problem had been due to a command which had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down. Despite the spacecraft being unable to land on the Moon, controllers used the spacecraft to simulate a landing; a task which was satisfactorily accomplished. ''Luna 6'' flew past the Moon late on 11 June, with a closest approach of . Contact was maintained to a distance of from Earth.

References

External links

Zarya - Luna programme chronology
{{Orbital launches in 1965 Luna 06 Spacecraft launched in 1965 1965 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched by Molniya-M rockets Derelict satellites in heliocentric orbit