Tuesday, October 27, 2026

1966-10-22 · 60 years ago

Luna-12 — launch

Date in UTC

Luna 12 (E-6LF series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 12. Luna 12 was launched towards the Moon onboard a Molniya-M and achieved lunar orbit on October 25, 1966. The spacecraft was equipped with a television system that obtained and transmitted photographs of the lunar surface. The photographs contained 1100 scan lines with a maximum resolution of 14.9-19.8 m. Pictures of the lunar surface were returned on October 27, 1966. The number of photographs is not known. Radio transmissions from Luna 12 ceased on January 19, 1967, after 602 lunar orbits and 302 radio transmissions. Luna 12 was launched to complete the mission that Luna 11 had failed to accomplish—take high-resolution photos of the Moon's surface from lunar orbit.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_12. 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 12
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Molniya 8K78M
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Outcome
Successful

Context and qualifications

Launch code: DS. Source references: JBIS53-319; -.

Sources and attribution

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