Tuesday, February 6, 1990

Luna 8

  1965-099A


E-6 No. 12 (Luna-8) was another failure; this time the retro burn came too late, with the same result - a destructive impact on the lunar surface. The airbags did not inflate properly, tumbling the spacecraft.

The launch used a lower inclination 51.8 deg parking orbit, allowing a larger launch mass of 1552 kg. This may have been the first E-6 flight with the 11S59 core stage.


Luna-8 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1965 Dec 3  1046:14  Launch by Molniya  KB 
 1051  Blok-A sep 
 1051  Blok-I burn 
 1055  Blok-I sep 
 1146?  BOZ burn 
 1147?  Blok-L burn 
 1151?  Blok-L sep 
1965 Dec 4  1900  TCM 
1965 Dec 6  1944  Set up lunar vertical 
1965 Dec 6  2139T+0 Airbag inflation 
  T+13s 90 km
 2151  75 km 
1965 Dec 6   Retro ignition
  Retro cutoff 9s 
1965 Dec 6  2151:30  Impact 9 8' N 63 18' W 

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