Thursday, October 29, 2026

1968-04-07 · 58 years ago

Luna-14 — launch

Date in UTC

Luna 14 (E-6LS series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program run by the Soviet Union. It was also called Lunik 14. The spacecraft is believed to have been similar to Luna 12 and the instrumentation was similar to that carried by Luna 10. It provided data for studies of the interaction of the Earth and lunar masses, the lunar gravitational field, the propagation and stability of radio communications to the spacecraft at different orbital positions, solar charged particles and cosmic rays, and the motion of the Moon. This flight was the final flight of the second generation of the Luna series. Luna 14 successfully entered lunar orbit at 19:25 UT on 10 April 1968.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_14. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#1968. 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 14
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Molniya 8K78M
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Human involvement
Uncrewed
Outcome
Successful

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