A Luna E-8-5 spacecraft |
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| Major contractors | NPO Lavochkin |
|---|---|
| Bus | Luna E-8-5 |
| Mission type | Lunar lander Sample return |
| Launch date | 14 June 1969 04:00:47 UTC |
| Carrier rocket | Proton-K/D 8K82K s/n 238-01 |
| Launch site | Baikonur Site 81/24 |
| Mass | 5,600 kilograms (12,000 lb) |
Luna E-8-5 No.402, also known as Luna Ye-8-5 No.402, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1969C,[1] was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1969. It was a 5,600-kilogram (12,000 lb) Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the first of eight to be launched.[2][3] It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth. It was, along with Luna 15, one of two unsuccessful missions which had been launched by the Soviet Union in a last-ditch attempt to upstage the Apollo 11 landing.[2]
Luna E-8-5 No.402 was launched at 04:00:07 UTC on 14 June 1969 atop a Proton-K 8K78K carrier rocket with a Blok-D upper stage, flying from Site 81/24 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.[4] The upper stage failed to ignite, and consequently the spacecraft failed to achieve orbit.[5] Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted sample return mission, however they believed that a previous attempt had been made, using a spacecraft launched on 30 April, which had also been lost in a launch failure. They designated that attempt Luna 1969B.[1] No Luna spacecraft or Proton rocket was launched on that date.[4]
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