Luna 15
The second Soviet attempt to return lunar soil, crashing hours before Apollo 11's departure.
Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme that was in lunar orbit at the same time as the Apollo 11 spacecraft.
Quick Facts
- Mission Type
- Lunar sample return
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar Id
- 1969-058A
- Satcat
- 4036
- Mission Duration
- 8 days achieved
- Spacecraft Bus
- Ye-8-5
- Manufacturer
- GSMZ Lavochkin
- Dry Mass
- 2718 kg
- Launch Mass
- 5667 kg
- Launch Rocket
- Proton-K/D
- Launch Site
- Baikonur 81/24
- Orbit Reference
- Selenocentric
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to bring lunar soil back to Earth, with the goal of beating the US in achieving the first sample return in the Moon race. The previous mission, designated E-8-5-402, launched on 14 June 1969, did not achieve Earth orbit because the third stage of its launch vehicle failed to ignite. The Luna 15 lander crashed into the Moon at 15:50 UT, hours before the scheduled American launch from the lunar surface.
Reader's Guide
Luna 15 was designed to study space around the Moon, the lunar gravitational field, and the chemical composition of lunar rocks. It could also photograph the lunar surface. It was placed in an intermediate Earth orbit after launch and was then sent toward the Moon. After a mid-course correction the day after launch, the spacecraft entered lunar orbit at 10:00 UT on 17 July 1969. It remained in lunar orbit for two days, while controllers checked its systems, and performed two orbital manoeuvres. After completing 86 communications sessions and 52 orbits of the Moon at various inclinations and altitudes, it began its descent. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had already set foot on the Moon when Luna 15 fired its main retrorocket engine to initiate descent to the surface at 15:47 UT on 21 July 1969. Transmissions ceased four minutes after de-orbit, at a calculated altitude of 3 km. The spacecraft had crashed, probably into the side of a mountain. Impact coordinates were 17° north latitude and 60° east longitude, in Mare Crisium. Luna's impact site is some 554 km north-northeast of the Apollo 11 landing site, on a bearing of 328 degrees.
More in Sample return missions 1-24
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