Luna 15

Luna 15

Luna 15
Mission type Lunar sample return
COSPAR ID 1969-058A
SATCAT № 4036
Mission duration 8 days achieved
Spacecraft properties
Bus Ye-8-5
Manufacturer GSMZ Lavochkin
Launch mass 5,600 kg (12,300 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 13 July 1969, 02:54:42 (1969-07-13UTC02:54:42Z) UTC
Rocket Proton-K/D
Launch site Baikonur 81/24
End of mission
Destroyed 21 July 1969, 15:51 (1969-07-21UTC15:52Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system Selenocentric
Lunar orbiter
Orbital insertion 17 July 1969, 10:00 UTC
Lunar impact (failed landing)
Impact date 21 July 1969, 15:51 UTC
Impact site 17°N 60°E / 17°N 60°E / 17; 60[1]
Instruments
  • Stereo imaging system
  • Remote arm for sample collection
  • Radiation detector

Luna 15 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna programme.

On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, an unmanned 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 return lunar soil back to Earth with a goal to outstrip the US in sample return under Moon race. The Soviet craft crashed into the Moon at 15:50 UT, hours before the scheduled American lift off from the Moon.[2]

Mission

Luna 15 was capable of studying circumlunar space, the lunar gravitational field, and the chemical composition of lunar rocks. It was also capable of providing lunar surface photography. Luna 15 was placed in an intermediate Earth orbit after launch and was then sent toward the Moon. After a mid-course correction the day after launch, Luna 15 entered lunar orbit at 10:00 UT on 17 July 1969. The spacecraft remained in lunar orbit for two days while controllers checked all on-board systems and performed two orbital manoeuvres.

After completing 86 communications sessions and 52 orbits of the Moon at various inclinations and altitudes, it began its descent. Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin had already set foot on the Moon when Luna 15 fired its main retrorocket engine to initiate descent to the surface at 15:47 UT on 21 July 1969. Transmissions ceased four minutes after de-orbit, at a calculated altitude of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi). The spacecraft had probably crashed into the side of a mountain. Impact coordinates were 17° north latitude and 60° east longitude, in Mare Crisium.[1]

An audio recording of the minutes in which British technicians at the radio telescope facility in Jodrell Bank observed Luna 15's descent was first made available to the public on 3 July 2009.[3]

Implications

In a race to reach the Moon and return to Earth, the parallel missions of Luna 15 and Apollo 11 represented, in many ways, the culmination of the Space Race between the space programs of both the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The simultaneous missions became one of the first instances of Soviet–American space cooperation: the USSR released Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11, though its exact mission was unknown.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 "Luna 15". NASA: Solar System Exploration: Missions to the Moon. Archived from the original on 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2015-06-22.
  2. "Russian spacecraft landed on Moon hours before Americans". telegraph.co.uk. 4 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  3. 1 2 Recording tracks Russia's Moon gatecrash attempt
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