Thursday, October 29, 2026

1969-07-13 · 57 years ago

Luna-15 — launch

Date in UTC

Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme that was in lunar orbit at the same time as the Apollo 11 spacecraft. On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to bring lunar soil back to Earth, with the goal of beating the US in achieving the first sample return in the Moon race. The previous mission, designated E-8-5-402, launched on 14 June 1969, did not achieve Earth orbit because the third stage of its launch vehicle failed to ignite.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_15. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#1969. 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 15
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Proton-K/D
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Outcome
Successful

Sources and attribution

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