Luna E-1 No.1

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E-1 No.1
Mission typeLunar impactor
Mission durationFailed to orbit
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer OKB-1
Launch mass361 kg
Start of mission
Launch date23 September 1958
07:40:23 GMT
Rocket Luna 8K72 s/n B1-3
Launch site Baikonur, Site 1/5
 

Luna E-1 No.1, [1] sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958A, [2] 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 be launched. [3]

Luna E-1 No.1 was a 361-kilogram (796 lb) spacecraft which marked the first Soviet attempt to send a spacecraft to the Moon. It was also the first mission of the Luna programme. The spacecraft was intended to release 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of sodium, in order to create a "comet" of the metal which could be observed from Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked. [4] Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted lunar impact mission. [2]

Chief Designer Sergei Korolev's ambitious space plans were being continually frustrated by design changes to the R-7 missile, launch failures, and the fact that the ICBM program took priority. On 10 July 1958, a test version of the Luna booster was flown which had a dummy upper stage (live avionics, but no engine) in order to try out the modifications to the R-7, which included a stronger airframe to support the added weight of the upper stage and more powerful engines (these engines had first been tested on Sputnik 3's booster a few months earlier). At liftoff, the Blok D strap-on suffered an engine malfunction and broke off of the booster, impacting on the pad and exploding. The rest of the R-7 crashed a few hundred feet away. This accident, which caused considerable damage to Site 1/5, was traced to high-frequency vibrations in the combustion chamber of Blok D, something that would become a persistent problem on R-7 launches over the next two years. Since the first Luna probe was scheduled for launch in a month, repairs on the pad were done at breakneck speed.

As Korolev knew that the United States was planning to launch a lunar probe on 17 August 1958, he faced considerable pressure getting the Luna and its booster ready for launch. Despite a number of technical issues, the pad crews managed to get the booster ready on the 17 August 1958, but Korolev instead decided to let the US flight go first on the reasoning that the Luna probe had a shorter trajectory to travel and would reach the Moon first. After that launch ended in a booster explosion, he decided to postpone the flight until the glitches with the 8K72 and Luna could be worked out.

Luna E-1 No.1 was launched on 23 September 1958 at 07:40:23 GMT atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket, [5] flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. [1] Ninety-two seconds after launch, longitudinal resonance within the rocket's strap-on booster rockets caused the vehicle to disintegrate. [5]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">LK (spacecraft)</span> Soviet lunar module intended to be used in the Soviet lunar landing attempts

The LK was a lunar module developed in the 1960s as a part of several Soviet crewed lunar programs. Its role was analogous to the American Apollo Lunar Module (LM). Three LK modules, of the T2K variant, were flown without crew in Earth orbit, but no LK ever reached the Moon. The development of the N1 launch vehicle required for the lunar flight suffered setbacks, and the first Moon landings were achieved by US astronauts on Apollo 11. As a result, having lost the Space Race, both the N1 and the LK programs were cancelled without any further development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soyuz 7K-L1 No.5L</span> Failed 1967 Soviet test spaceflight

Soyuz 7K-L1 No.5L, sometimes identified by NASA as Zond 1967B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was launched in 1967 as part of the Zond programme. It was a 5,390-kilogram (11,880 lb) Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft, the second of nine to be launched. It was intended to perform a circumlunar flyby of the Moon before returning to the Earth for landing, but failed to achieve Earth orbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soyuz 7K-L1 No.4L</span> Failed 1967 Soviet test spaceflight

Soyuz 7K-L1 No.4L, sometimes identified by NASA as Zond 1967A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was launched in 1967 as part of the Zond programme. It was a 5,390-kilogram (11,880 lb) Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft, the first of nine to be launched. Although it was intended to perform a circumlunar flyby of the Moon before returning to the Earth for landing, it failed to achieve Earth orbit.

The Molniya-M, designation 8K78M, was a Soviet Union launch vehicle derived from the R-7 Semyorka Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luna (rocket)</span>

The Luna 8K72 vehicles were carrier rockets used by the Soviet Union for nine space probe launch attempts in the Luna programme between 23 September 1958 and 16 April 1960. Like many other Soviet launchers of that era the Luna 8K72 vehicles were derived from the R-7 Semyorka design, part of the R-7, which was also the basis for the Vostok and modern Soyuz rocket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RD-0109</span> Rocket engine

The RD-0109 is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has single nozzle and is an evolution of the RD-0105. It was the engine used on the Vostok Block-E that launched Yuri Gagarin to orbit.

Zond program was a Soviet robotic spacecraft program launched between 1964 and 1970, using two spacecraft series, one for interplanetary exploration, and the other for lunar exploration.

References

  1. 1 2 McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 Williams, David R. (6 January 2005). "Tentatively Identified Missions and Launch Failures". NASA NSSDC. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  3. ↑ Krebs, Gunter. "Luna E-1". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  4. ↑ Wade, Mark. "Luna E-1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
  5. 1 2 Wade, Mark. "Soyuz". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 7 January 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
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