Scientific Instruments:

Spacecraft Bus:

STS-5 gas-discharge counter
scintillation counter
micrometeoroid detector
magnetometer
ion traps
LA-2 atomic hydrogen spectrometer

Impact Probe:

RMV barometer
TIPG thermometer
L-1A radiation detector
microorganism detection experiment
atmospheric composition experiment
R-3 acidity measurement experiment
K-2 electro-conductivity experiment
DAS-2 luminosity experiment

Results: The probe was the first dedicated 3MV spacecraft that the Soviets launched (earlier missions had been of the test "Object-Probe" versions). It was designed to accomplish atmospheric entry into Venus followed by descent and impact. The spacecraft successfully reached Earth orbit but failed to leave for Venus when the Blok L upper stage malfunctioned. The upper stage lost stable attitude due to a failure in the circuit of the power supply circuit that powered the valves for the attitude control system; hence, the stage remained uncontrollable and not ready to initiate a burn to leave Earth orbit. The problem was traced to a design error rather than one related to quality control. The spacecraft burned up in Earth's atmosphere the following day. If successful, this mission would probably have been given a "Venera" designation.

44 Zond 1 [Venera]

Nation: USSR (27)
Objective(s): Venus impact
Spacecraft: 3MV-1 (no. 4)
Spacecraft Mass: 948 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T15000-28)
Launch Date and Time: 2 April 1964 / 02:42:40 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

Spacecraft Bus:

STS-5 gas-discharge counter
scintillation counter
micrometeoroid detector
magnetometer
ion traps
LA-2 atomic hydrogen spectrometer

Impact Probe:

RMV barometer
TIPG thermometer
L-1A radiation detector
microorganism detection experiment
atmospheric composition experiment
R-3 acidity measurement experiment
K-2 electro-conductivity experiment
DAS-2 luminosity experiment

Results: This was the second dedicated launch of the 3MV series (not including two "Object-Probes"). Like its predecessor (see Kosmos 27), it was also designed for atmospheric entry and then impact on Venus. Although the probe was successfully sent towards Venus, ground controllers faced a series of major malfunctions in the spacecraft during its coast to the planet. These malfunctions included depressurization of the main spacecraft bus when the glass cover of a Sun-star attitude control sensor cracked. Additionally, the internal radio transmitters of the spacecraft were automatically switched on at precisely the wrong time, i.e., during depressurization, when the gas discharge created high-voltage currents that shorted out the communications system. As a result, communications had to be conducted through transmitters on the 290-kilogram pressurized descent module. Last contact was on 25 May 1964, by which time, controllers managed to conduct two major course corrections (at 560,000 and 13–14 million kilometers from Earth respectively), the first time such actions had been performed on a Soviet interplanetary spacecraft. The second correction, however, imparted 20 meters/second less velocity than required, ensuring that the vehicle would not intersect with Venus. The inert spacecraft eventually flew by Venus on 19 July 1964 at a range of 110,000 kilometers. The Soviets named the vehicle "Zond" (the Russian word for "probe") even though it was not one of the Object-Probe testbed spacecraft; this was done to disguise the fact that it was a failed Venus mission. If it had actually succeeded in its Venus mission, it probably would have been named "Venera 2." (Undoubtedly this has confused historians since this was not an Object-Probe mission). The Soviets later published some data on cosmic ray flux measured by Zond 1.

45 [Luna, Ye-6 no. 5]

Nation: USSR (28)
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 5)
Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,420 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya-M + Blok L (8K78M no. T15000-21)
Launch Date and Time: 20 April 1964 / 08:08:28 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system
gas-discharge counter

First image of the Moon returned by a Ranger mission (Ranger VII in 1964). Credit: NASA

Results: This was the fifth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft-landing. The mission was aborted early, during the ascent to Earth orbit, when the launch vehicle's third stage engine (Blok I) prematurely shut down after 50 seconds of firing (at T+340 seconds). U.S. Air Force radars in Turkey apparently monitored the failed launch. A subsequent investigation indicated that the engine cut off due to loss of power when a circuit between a battery in the fourth stage (which powered the third stage engine) and the I-100 guidance unit was broken.

46 Ranger VII

Nation: USA (18)
Objective(s): lunar impact
Spacecraft: P-54 / Ranger-B
Spacecraft Mass: 365.6 kg
Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

1965

Ranger VIII

Nation: USA (21)

Objective(s): lunar impact

Spacecraft: Ranger-C

Spacecraft Mass: 366.87 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Agena B (Atlas Agena B no. 13 / Atlas D no. 196 / Agena B no. 6006)

Launch Date and Time: 17 February 1965 / 17:05:00 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 12

Scientific Instruments:

1. imaging system (six TV cameras)

Results: As successful as its predecessor, Ranger VIII returned 7,137 high resolution photographs of the lunar surface prior to lunar impact at 09:57:37 UT on 20 February. Unlike Ranger VII, however, Ranger VIII turned on its cameras about eight minutes earlier to return pictures with resolution comparable to Earth-based telescopes (for calibration and comparison purposes). Controllers attempted to align the cameras along the main velocity vector (to reduce image smear) but abandoned this maneuver to allow greater area coverage. There had also been a spurious loss of telemetry during a midcourse correction on 18 February that gave rise for concern, although the mission was completed successfully. Ranger VIII impacted at 2° 43′ N / 24° 38′ E, just 24 kilometers from its intended target point in the equatorial region of the Sea of Tranquility, an area that Apollo mission planners were particularly interested in studying as a possible landing site for future crewed missions.

[Atlas Centaur 5]

Nation: USA (22)

Objective(s): highly elliptical orbit

Spacecraft: SD-1

Spacecraft Mass: 951 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur (AC-5 / Atlas C no. 156D / Centaur C)

Launch Date and Time: 2 March 1965 / 13:25 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 36A

Scientific Instruments: [none]

The unsuccessful Atlas Centaur 5 just after launch on 2 March 1965. The rocket carried a Surveyor dynamic test model known as SD-1. Credit: NASA

Results: This mission was designed to rehearse a complete Centaur upper stage burn in support of the Surveyor lunar lander program. On a nominal mission, the Centaur would boost its payload on a direct ascent trajectory to the Moon. On this test flight, NASA planned to deliver the payload, a non-functional dynamic model known as SD-1, into an orbit of 167 × 926,625 kilometers that simulated a lunar transfer trajectory. During the actual launch, less than 2 seconds after liftoff, a faulty valve that incorrectly closed caused both Atlas main engines to shut down. As a result, the booster fell back onto the pad and exploded.

Kosmos 60 [Luna]

Nation: USSR (30)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 9)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,470 kg

Mission Design and Management: OKB-1

Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. G15000-24)

Launch Date and Time: 12 March 1965 / 09:25 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

1. imaging system
1. SBM-10 radiation detector

Results: Yet another Soviet attempt to soft-land a Ye-6 probe on the lunar surface ended in failure when the Blok L upper stage failed to fire for the trans-lunar injection burn. Instead, the spacecraft remained stranded in Earth orbit. A later investigation indicated that there might have been a short circuit in the electric converter within the I-100 control system of the spacecraft (which also controlled the Blok L stage) preventing engine ignition. The spacecraft decayed five days later.

The S1.5400 engine powered the 4th stage known as the Blok L on Soviet lunar and planetary missions in the 1960s. This engine, capable of firing in vacuum, was the cause of numerous failures that left Soviet probes stranded in Earth orbit. Credit: T. Varfolomeyev

Ranger IX

Nation: USA (23)

Objective(s): lunar impact

Spacecraft: Ranger-D

Spacecraft Mass: 366.87 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Agena B (Atlas Agena B no. 14 / Atlas D no. 204 / Agena B no. 6007)

Launch Date and Time: 21 March 1965 / 21:37:02 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 12

Scientific Instruments:

1. imaging system (six TV cameras)

Results: Ranger IX was the final Ranger mission of the Block III series and closed out the program as a whole. Since both Ranger VII and Ranger VIII had provided sufficient photographs of the mare regions (potential landing sites for the early Apollo missions), Ranger IX was targeted to the more geologically interesting Alphonsus crater in the lunar highlands, a possible site for recent volcanic activity. Following a mid-course correction on 23 March, the spacecraft headed directly to its impact point. Only 20 minutes prior to impact, Ranger IX began taking the first of 5,814 pictures from an altitude of 2,100 kilometers. Unlike its predecessors, the cameras this time were aimed directly in the direction of travel and provided some spectacular shots as the spacecraft approached the lunar surface. These pictures were converted for live viewing on commercial TV. Best resolution was up 25–30 centimeters just prior to impact. The spacecraft crashed onto the Moon at 14:08:20 UT on 24 March at 12.83° S / 357.63° E, about six-and-a-half kilometers from its scheduled target at a velocity of 2.67 kilometers/second.

[Luna, Ye-6 no. 8]

Nation: USSR (31)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 8)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,470 kg

Mission Design and Management: OKB-1

Launch Vehicle: Molniya-M + Blok L (8K78M no. R103-26, also U15000-22)

Launch Date and Time: 10 April 1965 / 08:39 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

1. imaging system
1. SBM-10 radiation detector

Results: This was the seventh consecutive failure to accomplish a lunar soft-landing by the Soviets. On this mission, engineers redesigned the problematic I-100 control system that had caused most of the previous failures. Previously the I-100 unit had controlled both the Blok L upper stage and the spacecraft itself. On this mission (and subsequent Lunas), the fourth stage and the Ye-6 spacecraft had separate systems. Unfortunately, this probe never reached Earth orbit. During the launch, depressurization of a nitrogen pipe for the liquid oxygen tank on the third stage (Blok I) prevented third stage engine ignition. The spacecraft thus broke up over the Pacific without reaching Earth orbit.

Luna 5

Nation: USSR (32)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 10)

Spacecraft Mass: 1,476 kg

Mission Design and Management: OKB-1

Launch Vehicle: Molniya-M + Blok L (8K78M no. U103-30, also U15000-24)

Launch Date and Time: 9 May 1965 / 07:49:37 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

1. imaging system
1. SBM-10 radiation detector

Results: Luna 5 became the first Soviet probe to head for the Moon in two years. Following a midcourse correction on 10 May, the spacecraft began spinning around its main axis due to a problem in a floatation gyroscope in the I-100 control system unit—the gyroscopes apparently had had too little time to warm up before being used for attitude control. A subsequent attempt to fire the main engine failed due to ground control error. A third attempt also failed, and having lost control of the spacecraft due to the gyroscope problem, controllers stood by helplessly as Luna 5 crashed on to the surface of the Moon at 19:10 UT on 12 May in the Sea of Clouds, about 700 kilometers from its planned landing point. Landing coordinates were 31° S / 8° W. It was the second Soviet spacecraft to impact on the Moon (following Luna 2 in 1959).

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