Luna-11 — launch
Date in UTC
Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It was also called Lunik 11. Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon on board a Molniya-M and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966. 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the Moon were completed before the batteries failed on 1 October 1966. This subset of the "second-generation" Luna spacecraft, the E-6LF, was designed to take the first photographs of the surface of the Moon from lunar orbit. A secondary objective was to obtain data on mass concentrations ("mascons") on the Moon first detected by Luna 10. Using the Ye-6 bus, a suite of scientific instruments (plus an imaging system similar to the one used on Zond 3) replaced the small lander capsule used on the soft-landing flights.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_11. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#1966. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- Category
- Launches and Flight Tests
- Type
- Orbital launch
- Subjects
- Space transportation
- Mission
- Luna 11
- Organization
- Strategic Rocket Forces
- Vehicle
- Molniya 8K78M
- Location
- NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
- Country
- SU
- Human involvement
- Uncrewed
- Outcome
- Successful
Sources and attribution
- Jonathan McDowell — General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (opens in a new tab) — Data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat), CC BY 4.0. Adapted into anniversary records. (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Luna 11 (opens in a new tab) — Adapted from Wikipedia contributors; selected sentences retained and edited for length, reference markers and pronunciation glosses. CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Article and edit history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_11 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Timeline of Space Exploration Missions 1957 to 2031 (opens in a new tab)
- NASA — Luna 11 (opens in a new tab)
- NASA NSSDCA — Luna 11 (opens in a new tab)
