Mission Summary
Luna 6 was the ninth Soviet attempt to soft-land on the Moon, and like the eight tries before it, it failed to reach the surface. Launched June 8, 1965, it carried the egg-shaped lander capsule built to settle gently onto the Moon and return the first photographs from it.
The flight went as planned until a mid-course correction late on June 9. The main retro-rocket ignited on schedule but never shut off, firing until its propellant ran out and throwing the spacecraft far off course. Investigators blamed human error, tracing the fault to a mistaken command sent to the engine timer.
With a landing now impossible, controllers made the most of the doomed flight, rehearsing the full landing sequence by inflating the airbags and separating the lander capsule, all of which worked. Luna 6 passed the Moon on June 11 at a distance of 161,000 kilometers and drifted on into an orbit around the Sun. Ground stations kept contact out to 600,000 kilometers.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
