Luna 1959A
| Luna 1959A | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission goal | Earth moon | ||||||
| Client |
 Soviet Union
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| Launcher | Vostok (8K72) | ||||||
| construction | |||||||
| Takeoff mass | 387 kg | ||||||
| Course of the mission | |||||||
| Start date | June 18, 1959 | ||||||
| launch pad | Baikonur Cosmodrome | ||||||
| End date | June 18, 1959 | ||||||
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Luna 1959A , also known as Luna E-1A No.1 or Luna E-1 No.5 , was a Soviet lunar probe and was supposed to be the first spacecraft to hit the moon hard . Because the launch vehicle's inertial navigation system failed 153 seconds after launch, the probe never reached space. It was planned to emit sodium on the flight to the moon , which would form a cloud that was visible from Earth. So one wanted to follow the path of the probe.
The previous Lunik 1 probe overcame the earth's gravitational field, but missed the moon. The hard impact on the moon was not achieved until the subsequent mission, Lunik 2 .
Web links
- NASA: Tentatively Identified Missions and Launch Failures (English)
- Gunter's Space Page: Luna E-1A (English)
- Jonathan McDowell: launchlog.txt