Mission Summary
Luna 8 was the latest in the long run of Soviet soft-landing attempts, and it came nearer to success than almost any before it. Launched December 3, 1965, it carried the ALS lander capsule designed to cushion its touchdown and return the first pictures from the lunar surface.
The Blok L stage sent the probe toward the Moon, a mid-course correction on December 4 went well, and the spacecraft approached its target without apparent trouble. Just before the braking burn, controllers commanded the cushioning airbags to inflate. A plastic mounting bracket appears to have punctured one of the two bags, and the escaping air set the spacecraft spinning at about 12 degrees per second.
The probe briefly steadied itself, long enough for a nine-second retro firing, then lost control again. Without a full braking burn, Luna 8 crashed just west of the Kepler crater on December 6, 1965. The Soviet news agency TASS reported only that the craft systems had worked normally at every stage of the landing except the last.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
