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Mission
Kind: Lunar sample return
State: Failure
Place: Moon
Operator: GSMZ Lavochkin
Instruments: Stereo imaging system Remote arm for sample collection Radiation detector
Date
Start:
Duration: 8 days achieved
Mission Ending
"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." - Jim Henson
Rocket
Rocket: Proton-K/D
Kind: GSMZ Lavochkin
Manufacturer: GSMZ Lavochkin
Mass: 5,600 kg (12,300 lb)
Launch Site: Baikonur 81/24
Flyby
"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun
Orbit
Reference System: Selenocentric
1º Orbit: Lunar
Lander
"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." - Paul Theroux
Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that crashed into the Moon on 21 July 1969. On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to return lunar soil back to Earth with a goal to outstrip the US in achieving a sample return in the Moon race. The previous mission, designated E-8-5-402, launched 14 June 1969, did not achieve Earth orbit because the third stage of its launch vehicle failed to ignite. The Luna 15 lander crashed into the Moon at 15:50 UT, hours before the scheduled American lift off from the Moon.
