Luna 4
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| Organization: | Soviet Union |
| Major contractors: | OKB-1 |
| Mission type: | Planetary Science Lunar landing |
| Launch: | April 2, 1963 at 08:04:00 UTC |
| Launch vehicle: | Molniya 8K78 (4-Stage R-7 / SS-6) |
| Mission highlight: | Lunar flyby April 5, 1963, 13:25 UTC at distance of 8336.2 km |
| Mission duration: | > April 6, 1963 |
| Mass: | 1,422 kg |
| NSSDC ID: | 1963-008B |
| Webpage: | NASA NSSDC Master Catalog |
| Orbital elements | |
|---|---|
| Satellite of: | Earth |
| Semimajor axis: | 394,128 km |
| Eccentricity: | 0.772 |
| Inclination: | ?° |
| Orbital period: | ~28.365 d |
| Apoastron: | 698,455 km |
| Periastron: | 89,801 km |
| Orbits: | ? |
| Lunar Landing: | n/a |
| Landing coordinates: |
n/a |
| Lunar liftoff: | n/a |
| Instruments | |
| Close-Up Lunar Surface Photography | |
Luna 4 (E-6 series) was the USSR's first successful spacecraft of their "second generation" Luna program. The spacecraft, rather than being sent on a straight trajectory toward the Moon, was placed first in a low Earth orbit (167 to 182 km altitude) and then the rocket stage reignited to send it on a curving path towards the Moon.
Luna 4, the second attempt of this program, achieved the desired trajectory but a failure to make a required midcourse correction resulted in it missing the Moon by 8336.2 km at 13:25 UT on April 5, 1963. It then entered a barycentric 90,000 × 700,000 km Earth orbit. The intended mission of the probe is not known, it was speculated the probe was designed to land on the Moon with an instrument package based on the trajectory and on the later attempted landings of the Luna 5 and Luna 6 spacecraft and successful landing of Luna 9. (A lecture program entitled "Hitting the Moon" was scheduled to be broadcast on Radio Moscow at 7:45 p.m. the evening of April 5 but was cancelled.) The spacecraft transmitted at 183.6 MHz at least until April 6.
[edit] Lunar surface close-up photography
The purpose of this experiment was to obtain information on the characteristics of the lunar surface. These characteristics include the amount of cratering, structure and size of craters, the amount, distribution, and sizes of ejecta, mechanical properties of the surface such as bearing strength, cohesiveness, compaction, etc. Determination and recognition of processes operating to produce the lunar surface features also were among the objectives of this photographic experiment.
| Preceded by Luna 1963B |
Luna programme | Succeeded by Luna 1964A |
| Luna programme |
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| Luna 1958A | Luna 1958B | Luna 1958C | Luna 1 | Luna 1959A | Luna 2 | Luna 3 | Luna 1960A | Luna 1960B | Sputnik 25 | Luna 1963B | Luna 4 | Luna 1964A | Luna 1964B | Cosmos 60 | Luna 1965A | Luna 5 | Luna 6 | Luna 7 | Luna 8 | Luna 9 | Cosmos 111 | Luna 10 | Luna 1966A | Luna 11 | Luna 12 | Luna 13 | Luna 1968A | Luna 14 | Luna 1969A | Luna 1969B | Luna 1969C | Luna 15 | Cosmos 300 | Cosmos 305 | Luna 1970A | Luna 1970B | Luna 16 | Luna 17 | Luna 18 | Luna 19 | Luna 20 | Luna 21 | Luna 22 | Luna 23 | Luna 1975A | Luna 24 | ||||
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