35 [Mars, 2MV-3 no. 1]

Nation: USSR (19)
Objective(s): Mars impact
Spacecraft: 2MV-3 (no. 1)
Spacecraft Mass: [unknown]
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T103-17)
Launch Date and Time: 4 November 1962 / 15:35:14 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

Spacecraft Bus:

magnetometer
scintillation counter
gas discharge Geiger counters
Cherenkov detector
ion traps
cosmic wave detector
micrometeoroid detector

Impact Probe:

temperature, pressure, and density sensors
chemical gas analyzer
gamma-ray detector
Mercury level movement detector

Results: This was the third and last of the Soviet "second generation" Mars attempts in 1962 and also the only impact lander in the series. During the trans-Mars injection firing of the Blok L upper stage, the main engine (the S1.5400A1) prematurely shut down after 33 seconds due to a malfunction in the programmed timer for the stage. The problem was later traced to excessive vibrations of the second stage during liftoff. These vibrations also jarred loose a pyrotechnic igniter from its support, preventing the Blok L from firing. The spacecraft remained stranded in Earth orbit and reentered the atmosphere on 5 November. The probe had been intended to fly by Mars on 21 June 1963.

36 [Luna, Ye-6 no. 2]

Nation: USSR (20)
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 2)
Spacecraft Mass: 1,420 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T103-09)
Launch Date and Time: 4 January 1963 / 08:48:58 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system
gas-discharge counter

Results: This spacecraft was the first "second generation" Soviet lunar probe (known as Ye-6), designed to accomplish a survivable landing on the surface of the Moon. The Ye-6 probes were equipped with simple 100-kilogram lander capsules (called the Automatic Lunar Station or Avtomaticheskaya lunnaya stantsiya, ALS) whose primary objective was to send back photographs from the lunar surface. Each egg-shaped ALS was installed on a roughly cylindrical-shaped main bus. Like the Mars and Venera deep space probes, the Ye-6 Luna spacecraft were also launched by the four-stage 8K78 (Molniya) booster but modified for lunar missions. This first Ye-6 probe was designed to cruise for about three days before landing on the Moon on 7 January at 19:55:10 UT. Like many of its deep space predecessors, the probe failed to escape Earth orbit because of a failure in the Blok L trans-lunar injection stage. There was apparently a failure in a current converter in the power system of the I-100 instrument container (which controlled both the Blok L and the spacecraft), which as a result, failed to issue a command to fire the Blok L engine. The spacecraft remained in Earth orbit, unacknowledged by the Soviets until 11 January 1963.

37 [Luna, Ye-6 no. 3]

Nation: USSR (21)
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 3)
Spacecraft Mass: 1,420 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T103-10)
Launch Date and Time: 3 February 1963 / 09:29:14 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system
gas-discharge counter

Results: This was the second Soviet attempt to accomplish a soft-landing on the Moon (planned for 20:34:04 UT on 6 February). This time, the spacecraft failed to reach Earth orbit. After launch, at around T+105.5 seconds, the rocket began to lose attitude control along the pitch axis, which spread to the yaw axis after separation from the core booster. The third and fourth stages (along with payload) traced an arc and reentered over the Pacific Ocean near Midway Island. Later investigation indicated that the I-100 control system provided incorrect information to the booster's trajectory control system.

38 Luna 4

Nation: USSR (22)
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 4)
Spacecraft Mass: 1,422 kilograms
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T103-11)
Launch Date and Time: 2 April 1963 / 08:16:38 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system
gas-discharge counter

Results: The third Soviet attempt to perform a lunar soft-landing (planned for 19:42:37 UT on 5 April) was the first in which the spacecraft actually left Earth orbit. During the coast to the Moon, the spacecraft's Yupiter-M astronavigation system suffered a major failure (probably related to its thermal control system) and left the probe in an incorrect attitude. As a result, Luna 4 was unable to perform its planned mid-course correction. Although communications were maintained with the spacecraft, it passed by the Moon at a range of 8,500 kilometers at 01:24 UT on 6 April and eventually entered heliocentric orbit from its intermediate barycentric orbit. Data from the gas-discharge counter was compared with data from Mars 1 to provide further clarification to a radiation map of Earth up to lunar distance. The data showed that the intensity of cosmic radiation remained "virtually constant" up to 0.24 AU from the Earth.

39 Kosmos 21 [Zond]

Nation: USSR (23)
Objective(s): deep space and return to Earth
Spacecraft: 3MV-1A (no. 2, also no. 1)
Spacecraft Mass: c. 800 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. G103-18, also G15000-17)
Launch Date and Time: 11 November 1963 / 06:23:34 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

Spacecraft Bus:

radiation detector
charged particle detector
magnetometer
piezoelectric detector
LA-2 atomic hydrogen detector
Kassiopeya radio telescope
RSK-2M ultraviolet and Roentgen solar radiation experiment
VIKT-2 vapor friction technology experiment
plasma engines

Results: This was the first of the Soviet Union's "third generation" deep space planetary probes of the 3MV series. Like the second generation, Soviet engineers planned four types of the 3MV, the 3MV-1 (for Venus impact), 3MV-2 (for Venus flyby), 3MV-3 (for Mars impact), and 3MV-4 (for Mars flyby). The primary difference over the second generation was vastly improved (and in many cases doubled) orientation system elements as well as improved on board propulsion systems. While these four versions were meant to study Mars and Venus, the Soviets conceived of two additional variants of the series, similar but not identical to the 3MV-1 and 3MV-4 versions, with the designations 3MV-1A and 3MV-4A. These "Object-Probes" (ob'yekt-zond) were designed to verify key technological systems during simpler missions into deep space and back to Earth. A government decree on March 21, 1963 had approved two to three such "object-probe" missions, one of which (a 3MV-1A) was designed to depart from Earth's ecliptic (the orbital plane of Earth around the Sun) out to 12–16 million kilometers from Earth and then return back to Earth after about six months when its orbit intersected with that of Earth again, aided by two mid-course corrections using its S5.45 main engine. The latter, capable of two firings, was a lighter version of that used on the 2MV model with higher specific impulse and a longer burn time. During this mission, the third and fourth stages separated abnormally, and after reaching Earth orbit, ground control lost telemetry (at about 06:45:44 UT) from the Blok L upper stage designed to send the vehicle past the Moon. As a result, the spacecraft remained stranded in Earth orbit. The stage's main engine turbopump probably exploded upon ignition destroying the spacecraft. With this mission, the Soviets began the practice of giving "Kosmos" designations to obscure the failure of lunar and planetary probes that remained stranded in Earth orbit. If the spacecraft had successfully departed from Earth orbit, it would probably have been called "Zond 1."

40 Ranger VI

Nation: USA (17)
Objective(s): lunar impact
Spacecraft: P-53 / Ranger-A
Spacecraft Mass: 364.69 kg
Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL
Launch Vehicle: Atlas Agena B (Atlas Agena B no. 8 / Atlas D no. 199 / Agena B no. 6008)
Launch Date and Time: 30 January 1964 / 15:49:09 UT
Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 12

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system (six TV cameras)

Results: This fourth American attempt to lunar impact was the closest success so far. The spacecraft, the first Block III type vehicle with a suite of six TV cameras, was sterilized to avoid contaminating the lunar surface. The series would also serve as a testbed for future interplanetary spacecraft by deploying systems (such as solar panels) that could be used for more ambitious missions. The Block III spacecraft carried a 173-kilogram TV unit (replacing the impact capsule carried on the Block II Ranger spacecraft). The six cameras included two full-scan and four partial-scan cameras, capable of shooting 300 pictures a minute. Ranger VI flew to the Moon successfully and impacted precisely on schedule at 09:24:32 UT on 2 February. Unfortunately, the power supply for the TV camera package had short-circuited during Atlas booster separation three days previously and left the system inoperable. The cameras were to have transmitted high-resolution photos of the lunar approach from 1,448 kilometers to 6.4 kilometers range in support of Project Apollo. Impact coordinates were 9° 24′ N / 21° 30′ E.

41 [Zond, 3MV-1A no. 4A]

Nation: USSR (24)
Objective(s): Venus flyby
Spacecraft: 3MV-1A (no. 4A, also no. 2)
Spacecraft Mass: 800 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. G15000-26)
Launch Date and Time: 19 February 1964 / 05:47:40 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

radiation detector
charged particle detector
magnetometer
piezoelectric detector
LA-2 atomic hydrogen detector
Kassiopeya radio telescope
RSK-2M ultraviolet and Roentgen solar radiation experiment
VIKT-2 technology experiment
plasma engines

Results: This was the second Soviet "Object-Probe" whose goal was to test systems in interplanetary space in preparation for actual landings and flybys of Venus and Mars. Unlike its predecessor (see Kosmos 21), it appears not to have carried a lander. Its mission was to test its propulsion, thermal, and communications systems during a four-month flight in the direction of Venus to a distance of about 40 million kilometers. In the event, the spacecraft failed to reach Earth orbit due to a malfunction in the launch vehicle's third stage. Later investigation indicated that a liquid oxygen leak through an unpressurized valve (the B4311-O) seal froze propellant in the main pipeline while the rocket was still on the launch pad. As a result, the pipeline cracked, leading to an explosion in the third stage.

42 [Luna, Ye-6 no. 6]

Nation: USSR (25)
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Ye-6 (no. 6)
Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,420 kg
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya-M (8K78M no. T15000-20)
Launch Date and Time: 21 March 1964 / 08:14:33 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

imaging system
gas-discharge counter

Results: This fourth Soviet attempt to achieve a soft-landing on the Moon ended in failure when the spacecraft failed to reach an intermediate orbit around Earth. During the boost phase, the launcher's third stage engine's (8D715) main liquid oxygen valve failed to open when the valve rod broke. As a result, the engine never achieved full thrust and eventually cut off prematurely at T+487 seconds. The spacecraft never reached Earth orbit.

43 Kosmos 27 [Venera]

Nation: USSR (26)
Objective(s): Venus impact
Spacecraft: 3MV-1 (no. 5)
Spacecraft Mass: 948 kg (lander: 285 kg)
Mission Design and Management: OKB-1
Launch Vehicle: Molniya + Blok L (8K78 no. T15000-27)
Launch Date and Time: 27 March 1964 / 03:24:43 UT
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

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