Saturday, March 15, 1997

Luna 4A

  1963-001B


The first E-6 was E-6 No. 2 (No. 1 was a ground test article). It was launched on 1963 Jan 4. It used the first 8K78L rocket, a version of the 8K78 whose upper two stages were guided by a control system on the E-6 payload. It reached orbit, but the Blok-L stage did not ignite. The BOZ ullage unit failed to operate because of a power system failure and the I-100 control unit on the E-6 failed to send the ignition command to the Blok-L. Three objects were tracked; object 01A (SATCAT 521) is thought to have been the Blok-I stage, and reentered in a day. Object 01B (SATCAT 522) is usually listed as the E-6 probe with object 01C as debris; however 01C seems to have decayed more slowly. An alternate possibility is that 01C was the E-6 and Blok-L (still attached) while 01B was the BOZ unit.


E-6 No. 2 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1963 Jan 4  0849 Launch by Molniya  KB 
 0854  Blok-A sep 
 0854  Blok-I burn 
 0858  Blok-I sep 
 0949? BOZ failed 
 1009  01A 88.04 165 x 189 x 64.6 (A) 
 1900  01B 88.40 164 x 226 x 64.6 (B) 
1963 Jan 5   01A reentered 
1963 Jan 7  0300  01B  88.23 178 x 194 x 64.8 
1963 Jan 7  0304  01C  88.55 178 x 226 x 64.8 
1963 Jan 9  0301  01B  87.98 174 x 174 x 64.8 
1963 Jan 10  0447  01C  88.32 163 x 219 x 64.7 
1963 Jan 11   01B reentered 
1963 Jan 16  01C reentered 

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