Luna-15 is a Soviet automatic interplanetary station (AMS) for exploring the moon and outer space . It was intended for the delivery of lunar soil samples to Earth . The mission ended in failure: the landing module crashed on the surface of the moon.
| Moon 15 | |
|---|---|
| Automatic interplanetary station E-8-5 No. 401 | |
 AMS " Luna-16 ", analogue of the station "Luna-15" | |
| Manufacturer |  NGO named after Lavochkina |
| Satellite | The moon |
| Launch pad | Baikonur Sq. 81/24 |
| Launch vehicle | Proton-K / Block D 242-01 |
| Launch | July 13, 1969 02:54:42 UTC |
| Entry into orbit | July 17, 1969 |
| NSSDC ID | 1969-058A |
| SCN | 04036 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 5667 kg |
| Elements of the orbit | |
| Mood | 127 ° |
| Circulation period | 1 hour 54 minutes |
| Apocenter | 110 km |
| Pericenter | 16 km |
| Project site | |
July 21, 1969, when the Apollo 11 astronauts completed the first man’s exit to the lunar surface, the AMS Luna 15, which was in lunar orbit at that moment, began descent to the satellite’s surface. Luna-15 was launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, and was the second attempt by the Soviet Union to return lunar soil back to Earth in order to get ahead of the United States in a lunar race. The previous mission, designated E-8-5-402, launched on June 14, 1969, did not reach the Earth’s orbit. The Luna-15 lander crashed into the moon at 15:50 UT, a few hours before the planned departure of the American from the moon. [one]
Content
Composition
The automatic space complex for the delivery of soil from the moon consisted of:
- landing platform
- return rocket
- rescue apparatus.
History
Background of the "Moon-15" Flight
On June 14, 1969, at 07:00:48 seconds, with the help of the Proton-K launch vehicle, an attempt was made to launch an AMS similar to Luna-15. This station did not enter the reference geocentric orbit due to an error in the control circuits, which led to the fact that the teams to prepare and launch the propulsion system of the upper stage D, whose tasks were to bring the head unit, were not executed.
Flight program execution
The Luna-15 AMC was launched from the site No. 81 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Proton-K launch vehicle on July 13, 1969. The device was first put into an intermediate near-earth orbit, and then it was given an impulse that transfers it to the flight path to the moon.
On July 14, a trajectory correction was carried out. On July 17, a propulsion system in braking mode was activated over the far side of the Moon, which transferred the Luna-15 station to a near-moon orbit.
On July 19 and 20, two orbit corrections were made, as a result of which the landing orbit was formed: settlements - 110 km, peri - settlements - 16 km, inclination - 127 °, rotation period - 1 hour 54 minutes.
July 21, 1969 at 18 hours 46 minutes 43 seconds the propulsion system of the station was turned on for braking to leave orbit. The duration of the first stage of reduction with the help of a large thrust engine was to be 267.3 seconds after switching on and ended at an altitude of ≈2.5 km. However, suddenly, at the 237th second of descent, at 18 hours 50 minutes 40 seconds, communication with the spacecraft was lost, at the time of the loss of communication the parameters of the on-board systems of the station were normal.
The cause of the accident could be a collision of the Luna-15 station with a mountain, which is quite likely if an error were made in the position of the device at the time of the engine start command, about 15 km away from the calculated trajectory and ≈45 km along the trajectory.
Results
The flight program of the Luna-15 station was not completed. the landing module crashed on the surface of the moon.
| A series of spacecraft "Moon" | ||
| Previous Flight: Moon 14 | Moon 15 | Next flight: Moon 16 |
Notes
- ↑ Russian spacecraft landed on moon hours before Americans (July 4, 2009). Date of treatment July 21, 2019.
Links
- Official website of NGO named after S. A. Lavochkina
- Forgotten pictures from a forgotten lunar station // December 6, 2016
- Mystery of the Moon-15 " on YouTube