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
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
Image
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
50
1965
51
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:
-
- 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
<!-- image -->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.
52
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:
-
- imaging system
-
- 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.
<!-- image -->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
53
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:
-
- 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.