Tuesday, October 27, 2026

1969-02-19 · 57 years ago

E-8 No. 201 — launch

Date in UTC

Luna E-8 No.201, also known as Luna Ye-8 No.201, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1969A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1969. It was a 5,590 kilograms (12,320 lb) Luna E-8 spacecraft, the first of three to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, in order to deploy a Lunokhod rover onto the surface. It carried the Lunokhod No.201 rover. Luna E-8 No.201 was launched at 06:48:15 UTC on 19 February 1969 atop a Proton-K 8K78K carrier rocket with a Blok D upper stage, flying from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81/24. The payload shroud collapsed at T+51 seconds as the booster was passing through the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure and debris struck the Proton's external N2O4 tanks at high speed, puncturing them and allowing oxidizer to spill out and ignite on contact with the engine exhaust, resulting in the explosion of the first stage.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1969A. Original timeline Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_program. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/tent_launch.html#luna1969a. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Category
Launches and Flight Tests
Mission
E-8 No. 201
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Proton-K/D
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Launch outcome
failure

Context and qualifications

Launch code: OF. Source references: NK9524-70; NK9810-25. Fairing structural fail

Sources and attribution

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