Luna E-8-5 No. 402

Lore & Background

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. The upper stage failed to ignite, and consequently the spacecraft failed to achieve orbit. It was a 5,600-kilogram Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the first of at least eleven to be launched.

Reader's Guide

Luna E-8-5 No.402 represents a critical early step in the Soviet Union's ambitious lunar sample return program, which aimed to retrieve Moon soil before or alongside American Apollo missions. Its launch failure on 14 June 1969, due to an upper stage ignition problem, prevented it from ever reaching lunar orbit, let alone landing and returning a sample. The mission is historically significant as part of the intense Moon race competition, launched as a last-ditch attempt to upstage the Apollo 11 landing. NASA correctly identified it as an attempted sample return mission, though they mistakenly believed a prior attempt had occurred on 30 April 1969 (designated Luna 1969B), a date on which no Luna spacecraft or Proton rocket was actually launched. This confusion underscores the secrecy and uncertainty surrounding Soviet space efforts at the time. The failure of Luna E-8-5 No.402, along with that of Luna 15 later that year, meant the Soviet Union did not achieve a robotic sample return before the United States' crewed lunar landing.

Did You Know?

• Luna E-8-5 No.402 was also identified by NASA as Luna 1969C.
• The upper stage of its Proton-K rocket failed to ignite, preventing orbit.
• NASA incorrectly believed a previous sample return attempt had been made on 30 April 1969.