Luna 11
Luna 11 — a Soviet lunar orbiter (in orbit 27 August 1966). A failed pointing manoeuvre left its camera photographing empty space, but its other instruments studied the Moon's gamma and X-ray emissions, gravity and radiation for 277 orbits, until its batteries ran out on 1 October 1966.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Lavochkin (USSR)
- Launched
- August 24, 1966
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.996 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 1,461,182 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.276 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Luna 11 reached lunar orbit but its main camera saw nothing but darkness. Launched on 24 August 1966, it entered an orbit of 163.5 by 1,193.6 km, inclined 27°, at 21:49 UT on 27 August. About three hours later a manoeuvre to point the orbiter at the Moon for photography failed, and its camera took 64 images of black space. A fault investigation concluded that a part had probably come loose in the nozzle of the attitude-control system, and the design was corrected before Luna 12. The rest of its payload fared better. Its instruments studied the Moon's gamma and X-ray emissions — clues to what its surface is made of — along with its gravity, the meteoroids around it and the radiation near it, although little of that data was ever published, and its ultraviolet spectrometer returned nothing. It also tested how gear lubricants held up in a vacuum, for future lunar rovers. After 277 orbits and 137 radio sessions its batteries were exhausted on 1 October 1966. Its orbit presumably decayed quickly, ending with an impact on the Moon in late 1966 or 1967.
- 1966Luna 11 launches toward the Moon from the Baikonur CosmodromeLaunch
The second Soviet lunar orbiter sets out.
A failed pointing manoeuvre leaves its camera photographing empty space.
- 1966Batteries exhaustedMission end
After 277 orbits its signals stop.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image