Luna 12
Luna 12 — a Soviet lunar orbiter (in orbit 25 October 1966) that succeeded where Luna 11's camera had not: it reportedly returned close-up images of the surface, though only two were ever published. It studied the lunar environment for 602 orbits, until transmissions stopped on 19 January 1967.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Lavochkin (USSR)
- Launched
- October 22, 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 12 finished what Luna 11's camera could not. Launched on 22 October 1966 with a corrected attitude-control system, it reached a lunar orbit of 103 by 1,742 km on 25 October. Two days later its imaging system switched on for 64 minutes and reportedly returned 28 high-resolution and 14 panoramic pictures of the surface, although only two of them were ever made public. The spacecraft was then set spinning to keep it stable for its other experiments. Like its predecessor it measured the Moon's gamma and X-ray emissions, gravity, meteoroids and radiation, and tested gear lubricants in a vacuum for future rovers; its ultraviolet spectrometer failed again. Its closest approach dropped to only 20 km above the surface before controllers raised it to 70 km toward the end. Transmissions stopped on 19 January 1967 after 602 orbits and 302 radio sessions, and the spacecraft is assumed to have crashed on the Moon, at an unknown place, later that year.
- 1966Luna 12 launches toward the Moon from the Baikonur CosmodromeLaunch
With the attitude-control fault that crippled Luna 11 corrected.
An elongated orbit that carries it close over the surface.
- 1966Photographs the surfaceMilestone
Its camera runs for 64 minutes; only two of the images are ever published.
- 1967Transmissions endMission end
After 602 orbits its radio falls silent.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image