Luna 19
Luna 19 — a Soviet lunar orbiter (in orbit 2 October 1971) that spent more than a year mapping the Moon's gravity and its mass concentrations, radiation, micrometeoroids and magnetic field. A faulty gyroscope left it higher than planned, so its cameras took panoramic views instead of close-ups. Contact was lost on 1 November 1972.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Lavochkin (USSR)
- Launched
- September 28, 1971
- 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 19 began the third generation of Soviet lunar orbiters. Its 5,600 kg bus was built like the landing stage of the Lunokhod rover missions — propellant tanks and rockets topped by a platform — carrying a sealed instrument container with solar panels under a hinged lid. Launched on 28 September 1971 on a Proton rocket, it entered an orbit of about 134 by 141 km, inclined 40.5°, on 2 October. On 6 October controllers tried to move it into the orbit planned for imaging, but a faulty gyroscope caused an orientation error and left it in a 127 by 135 km orbit, higher than planned. The high-resolution imaging and radar-altimeter plans were cancelled, and its cameras took panoramic views instead. What Luna 19 did best was to keep going. For more than a year it charted the Moon's gravity field and its mass concentrations, or mascons, while monitoring radiation, the gamma rays given off by the surface, micrometeoroids, the magnetic field and the solar wind. Contact was lost on 1 November 1972, after about 4,000 orbits. Its orbit presumably decayed within the next year, ending in an impact at an unknown place on the Moon.
- 1971Luna 19 launches toward the Moon on a Proton rocketLaunch
The first of the third-generation Soviet lunar orbiters.
It begins more than a year of work mapping the Moon's gravity.
- 1971A gyroscope faultMilestone
An orientation error leaves it higher than planned; panoramic images replace the planned close-ups.
- 1972Contact lostMission end
After more than a year and about 4,000 orbits.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image