Luna 6
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| Organization: | Soviet Union |
| Major Contractors: | OKB-1 |
| Mission Type: | Planetary Science Lunar landing |
| Satellite of: | Sun |
| Launch: | June 8, 1965 at 07:41:00 UTC |
| Launch Vehicle: | Molniya 8K78M (4-Stage R-7 / SS-6) |
| Mission Highlight: | Lunar flyby 159,612.8 km on June 11, 1965, at 17:00 UTC. |
| Mission Duration: | 3-days |
| Mass: | 1,440 kg |
| NSSDC ID: | 1965-044A |
| Webpage: | NASA NSSDC Master Catalog |
| Orbital elements | |
|---|---|
| Semimajor Axis: | n/a |
| Eccentricity: | n/a |
| Inclination: | n/a |
| Orbital Period: | n/a |
| Aposelene: | n/a |
| Periselene: | n/a |
| Orbits: | Heliocentric orbit |
| Instruments | |
| Close-Up Lunar Surface Photography : | Lunar photography |
Luna 6 (E-6 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 6. Luna 6 was intended to travel to the Moon, but, because a midcourse correction failed, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km.
On this ninth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft-landing, the mission proceeded as planned until the major midcourse correction late on 9 June. Although the main retro-rocket engine (the S5.5A) ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until propellant supply was exhausted. An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down. Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished. Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit. Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.
- Launch Date/Time: 1965-06-08 at 07:41:00 UTC
- On-orbit dry mass: 1440 kg
| Preceded by Luna 5 |
Luna programme | Succeeded by Luna 7 |
| 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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