Luna 3

  1959-008A

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The next probe, object E-2A or Luna 3, had a somewhat different design. It carried a camera and developing equipment, and was stabilized. The original E-2 design was modified when a change to the planned trajectory required a new communications design  and the Yenisey-1 TV system was replaced by Yenisey-2. The system used special radiation-hardened film, and it was revealed later on that this film was actually captured from American Genetrix spy balloons. The probe was placed in an orbit around the Earth-Moon system, allowing it to photograph the far side of the lunar surface. The photographs were developed on board and transmitted back to Earth by radio. Unfortunately, the secrecy in which the probe was developed meant that astronomers were not fully included in the planning; the probe was launched at a time when the illumination of the far side was too high, and as a result there was very little contrast in the pictures. Cartographers spent several years giving names to entirely spurious features. Nevertheless, Luna-3 did return the first farside images, and enough true detail was visible to reveal that the far side had far fewer maria (dark plains) and more highland regions than the nearside. The probe was launched on Oct 4, the second anniversary of the first Sputnik, and passed the lunar farside at a distance of 6200 km at 1416 UTC on Oct 6. The imaging was done at aroud 0330 UTC on Oct 7. The craft returned to perigee on Oct 18 and continued transmitting from its elliptical orbit until Nov 15. It probably reentered in March or April 1960. As well as the photo experiment, Luna-3 also carried a micrometeoroid detector and radiation detectors.

AMS Luna-3
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1959 Oct 4	0043	Launch by 8K72	KB
	0048?	Blok-A sep
	0048?	Blok-E burn
		Fairing sep?
	0055?	Blok-E sep	200? x 476500 x 65
	1000	108000 km over 80E 5S
	1500	145000 km over 8.6S 5.8E
1959 Oct 5	0900	248000 km over 14 20S 98.0 E
	1700	284000 km over 20.5S 21.5W
1959 Oct 6	1416	Farside flyby, 6200 km
1959 Oct 6	1525	Farside flyby, 6732 km (US calculation)
	1700	371700 km over 17.5S 22.8W
	1700	15000 km over lunar coords 137 -12
1959 Oct 7	0330	Farside imaging at 65600 km distance
	0410	End of imaging
	1700	417000 km from Earth at RA 16:31:37 -11:36
1959 Oct 8	1700	448000 km
1959 Oct 9	1700	466000 km 3S 22W
1959 Oct 10		Apogee 1	47490 x 480500 x 80
	1700	470000 km over 1.4N 22.6W
1959 Oct 12	1700	456000 km over 22 42W 9.4N
1959 Oct 13	1700	430500 km over 22.7W 13.9N
1959 Oct 15	1700	339200 km over 22.1W 25.6N
1959 Oct 16	1700	267000 km
1959 Oct 17	1700	166500 km
1959 Oct 18	1650	Perigee 1 4 km/s	41100 x 470100
1959 Oct 21	1700	342000 km over 37W 21S
1959 Oct 26	1759	Apogee 2	47490 x 489000
1959 Oct 27	1700	484000 km over 38 06W 6 30N
1959 Nov 15		End of ops
1960 Jan 21	1252	Perigee 7	18225 x ?
1960 Jan 24	0237	Second lunar flyby 50545 km
1960 Mar 8	0510?	Entry?

Payload:

• Yenisey-2 TV system

• Camera with 200 mm focal length

• Camera with 500 mm focal length

• Photographic camera development equipment