1966

65) Luna 9 began transmitting data to Earth, but

Luna 9 it was 7 hours (after the Sun climbed to 7°
Nation: USSR (40) elevation) before the probe began sending the
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing first of nine images (including five
Spacecraft: Ye-6M (no. 202) panoramas) of the surface of the Moon. These
Spacecraft Mass: 1,538 kg were the first images sent from the surface of
Mission Design and Management: GSMZ another planetary body. The radiation
Lavochkin detector, the only scientific instrument on
Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. U103-32) board, measured a dosage of 30 millirads per
Launch Date and Time: 31 January 1966 / day. Perhaps the most important discovery of
11:41:37 UT the mission was determining that a foreign
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 31 object would not simply sink into the lunar
Scientific Instruments: dust, that is, that the ground could support a
1) imaging system heavy lander. Last contact with the space-
2) SBM-10 radiation detector craft was at 22:55 UT on 6 February 1966.
Results: With this mission, the Soviets accom-
plished another spectacular first in the space 66)
race, the first survivable landing of a human- Kosmos 111 / [Luna]
made object on another celestial body. Luna 9 Nation: USSR (41)
was the twelfth attempt at a soft-landing by Objective(s): lunar orbit
the Soviets; it was also the first deep space Spacecraft: Ye-6S (no. 204)
probe built by the Lavochkin design bureau, Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,580 kg
which ultimately would design and build Mission Design and Management: GSMZ
almost all Soviet (and Russian) lunar and Lavochkin
interplanetary spacecraft. All operations Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. N103-41)
prior to landing occurred without fault, and Launch Date and Time: 1 March 1966 /
the 58-centimeter spheroid ALS capsule 11:03:49 UT
landed on the Moon at 18:45:30 UT on 3 Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 31
February 1966 west of the Reiner and Marius Scientific Instruments:
craters in the Ocean of Storms (at 7°8' north 1) magnetometer
latitude and 64°22' west longitude). 2) gamma-ray spectrometer
Approximately 5 minutes after touchdown, 3) five gas-discharge counters

1966 53
 4) two ion traps and a charged-particle lunar equator. The spacecraft carried a set of
trap solid-state oscillators that had been pro-
5) piezoelectric micrometer detector grammed to reproduce the notes of the
6) infrared detector Internationale so that it could be broadcast
7) low-energy x-ray photon counters live to the 23rd Communist Party Congress.
Results: In early 1966, the Soviets began During a rehearsal on the night of 3 April,
hastily putting together an interim lunar the playback went well, but the following
orbiter program, the Ye-6S, partly to upstage morning, controllers discovered a missing
the American Lunar Orbiter project and note and played the previous night’s tape to
partly to commemorate the 23rd Congress of the assembled gathering at the Congress–
the Communist Party held in March 1966. claiming it was a live broadcast from the
Engineers quickly designed a set of two rudi- Moon. Luna 10 conducted extensive research
mentary probes using the old Ye-6 (lander) in lunar orbit, gathering important data on
buses for these missions. The first of them was the weakness of the Moon’s magnetic field, its
prepared in less than a month but failed to radiation belts, and the nature of lunar rocks
leave Earth orbit. During Earth orbit opera- (which were found to be comparable to ter-
tions, the Blok L upper stage lost roll control restrial basalt rocks), cosmic radiation, and
and failed to fire to send the probe towards micrometeoroid density. Perhaps its most
the Moon. The official Soviet media named the important finding was the first evidence of
stranded satellite Kosmos 111; it reentered mass concentrations (called “mascons”)—
Earth’s atmosphere two days after launch. areas of high density below the mare basins
that distort lunar orbital trajectories. Their
67) discovery has usually been credited to the
Luna 10 American Lunar Orbiter series. Last contact
Nation: USSR (42) was on 30 May 1966.
Objective(s): lunar orbit
Spacecraft: Ye-6S (no. 206) 68)
Spacecraft Mass: 1,582 kg Surveyor Model 2
Mission Design and Management: GSMZ Nation: U.S. (26)
Lavochkin Objective(s): highly elliptical orbit
Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. N103-42) Spacecraft: SD-3
Launch Date and Time: 31 March 1966 / Spacecraft Mass: 784 kg
10:47 UT Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 31 Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur (AC-8 / Atlas
Scientific Instruments: no. 184D / Centaur D)
1) magnetometer Launch Date and Time: 8 April 1966 /
2) gamma-ray spectrometer 01:00:02 UT
3) five gas-discharge counters Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 36B
4) two ion traps and a charged-particle Scientific Instruments: none
trap Results: This was a test to launch a dummy
5) piezoelectric micrometer detector Surveyor lunar lander spacecraft into a
6) infrared detector barycentric orbit toward a simulated Moon.
7) low-energy x-ray photon counters Unlike the two previous Surveyor mass model
Results: After a midcourse correction on 1 tests, this flight was supposed to demonstrate
April, Luna 10, the second of two hastily pre- a restart capability for the Centaur upper
pared Soviet Ye-6S probes (that is, the stage. The Centaur-Surveyor combination
backup), successfully entered lunar orbit two successfully achieved parking orbit around
days later at 18:44 UT, thus becoming the Earth, but at the desired time, the Centaur
first humanmade object to go into orbit engines fired for only a few seconds. A thrust
around another planetary body. A 245-kilo- imbalance left the payload tumbling. The
gram instrument compartment separated problem was later traced to a hydrogen per-
from the main bus, which was in a 350 x oxide leak in the ullage motors of the Centaur
1,000-kilometer orbit inclined at 71.9° to the stage. With no hope of reaching its ultimate

54 Deep Space Chronicle

orbit, the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmos- face indicated that Surveyor 1 was resting in
phere on 5 May 1966. a 100-kilometer-diameter crater that con-
tained boulders of more than 1 meter in
69) length scattered all around. The photos
Surveyor 1 showed crestlines of low mountains in the
Nation: U.S. (27) distant horizon. The lander transmitted
Objective(s): lunar soft-landing 11,350 images over two separate communica-
Spacecraft: Surveyor-A tions sessions by 6 July. Although the pri-
Spacecraft Mass: 995.2 kg mary mission was completed by 13 July,
Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL NASA maintained contact until 7 January
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur (AC-10 / Atlas 1967. Without doubt, Surveyor 1 was one of
D no. 290 / Centaur D) the great successes of NASA’s early lunar and
Launch Date and Time: 30 May 1966 / interplanetary program.
14:41:01 UT
Launch Site: ETR, launch complex 36A
Scientific Instruments:
1) imaging system
Results: NASA initially (c. 1963) conceived of
the Surveyor program as a landing and
orbiting robotic lunar project, but it scaled
down plans to a more specific program of ten
lunar soft-landers (seven were eventually
launched) geared toward basic engineering
goals rather than scientific exploration. The
primary “scientific instrument” was an
imaging system. Unlike the Soviet Luna lan-
ders, Surveyor was a true soft-lander, com-
prising a 3-meter-tall vehicle based on a
27-kilogram, thin-walled aluminum trian-
gular structure with one of three legs at each
corner and a large solid-propellant retro-
rocket engine (that comprised over 60 percent
of the spacecraft’s overall mass) in the center.
The spacecraft was equipped with a Doppler
velocity-sensing system that fed information
into the spacecraft computer to implement a
controllable descent to the surface. Each of
the three landing pads also carried aircraft-
type shock absorbers and strain gauges to
provide data on landing characteristics,
important for future Apollo missions.
Surveyor 1, the first in the series, was an
unprecedented success. NASA accomplished
the first true soft-landing on the Moon on its
very first try when the probe landed in the
southwest region of the Ocean of Storms at
06:17:36 UT on 2 June 1966, just 63.6
hours after launch from Cape Canaveral.
Touchdown coordinates were 2°27' south lati- Image of Surveyor 1’s shadow against the lunar surface in the late lunar afternoon,
tude and 43°13' west longitude, just 14 kilo- with the horizon at the upper right. Surveyor 1 was the first U.S. mission to make a
meters from the planned target. At landing, successful soft-landing on the Moon. In addition to transmitting over 11,000 pictures,
the spacecraft weighed 294.3 kilograms. The it sent information on the bearing strength of the lunar soil, the radar reflectivity, and
initial panoramic views from the lunar sur- temperature.

1966 55
 70) resolution photographs of potential Apollo
Explorer 33 landing sites. NASA planned launches of a
Nation: U.S. (28) series of three-axis stabilized spacecraft with
Objective(s): lunar orbit four solar panels and a main engine (derived
Spacecraft: IMP-D from an Apollo attitude control thruster) for
Spacecraft Mass: 93.4 kg lunar orbit insertion. The primary instrument
Mission Design and Management: NASA GSFC on board was a 68-kilogram Eastman-Kodak
Launch Vehicle: Thor-Delta E-1 (no. 39 / Thor imaging system (using wide- and narrow-
no. 467 / DSV-3E) angle lenses) that could develop exposed film,
Launch Date and Time: 1 July 1966 / scan the images, and send them back to Earth.
16:02:25 UT The narrow-angle pictures provided resolution
Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 17A of up to 60 to 80 meters, while the wide-angle
Scientific Instruments : photos showed resolutions up to 0.5 kilome-
1) fluxgate magnetometers ters. Lunar Orbiter 1 entered a 191 x 1,854-
2) thermal ion probe kilometer orbit around the Moon on 24
3) ion chamber August, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to
4) tubes plus p-on-n junction do so. The spacecraft’s primary mission was to
5) Faraday-cup probe photograph nine potential Apollo landing
Results: Explorer 33 was designed to become sites, seven secondary areas, and the Surveyor
the first U.S. spacecraft to enter lunar orbit 1 landing site. During its mission, the probe
(planned parameters were 1,300 x 6,440 kilo- took 207 frames of the lunar surface covering
meters at 175° inclination), but the Thor an area of 5.18 million square kilometers. The
Delta E-1 second stage accelerated too rap- high-resolution photos were blurred from
idly for compensation by the probe’s retro- smearing, but the medium-resolution images
rocket to achieve lunar orbit. Instead, the were the best lunar surface images returned
spacecraft (56.7 kg by this time) went into an to date. One of the images returned, taken on
eccentric Earth orbit of 15,897 x 435,330 23 August, was the first picture of Earth from
kilometers. The main solid-propellant retro- the Moon. Lunar Orbiter 1 returned its last
rocket engine later stabilized the orbit to a picture on 30 August and was commanded to
less eccentric 30,550 x 449,174-kilometer crash on to the lunar surface on 29 October to
orbit at 28.9° inclination. In its new orbit, the prevent its transmissions from interfering
probe returned key data on Earth’s magnetic with future Lunar Orbiters. Impact coordi-
tail, the interplanetary magnetic field, and nates were 6°42' north latitude and 162° east
radiation. longitude (at 13:30 UT).

71) 72)
Lunar Orbiter 1 Pioneer 7
Nation: U.S. (29) Nation: U.S. (30)
Objective(s): lunar orbit Objective(s): heliocentric orbit
Spacecraft: LO-A Spacecraft: Pioneer-B
Spacecraft Mass: 385.6 kg Spacecraft Mass: 62.75 kg
Mission Design and Management: NASA LaRC Mission Design and Management: NASA ARC
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena D (no. 17 / Atlas Launch Vehicle: Thor-Delta E-1 (no. 40 / Thor
D no. 5801 / Agena D no. AD121 / 6630) no. 462 / DSV-3E)
Launch Date and Time: 10 August 1966 / Launch Date and Time: 17 August 1966 /
19:26:00 UT 15:20:17 UT
Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 13 Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 17A
Scientific Instruments: Scientific Instruments:
1) imaging system 1) single-axis fluxgate magnetometer
2) micrometeoroid detectors 2) Faraday-cup plasma probe
3) radiation dosimeters 3) plasma analyzer
Results: The Lunar Orbiter program originated 4) cosmic-ray telescope
as a response to the need to obtain 1-meter- 5) cosmic-ray-anisotropy detector

56 Deep Space Chronicle

 6) radio wave propagation experiment of scientific instruments (plus an imaging
7) celestial mechanics experiment system similar to the one used on Zond 3)
Results: Identical to Pioneer 6, Pioneer 7 replaced the small lander capsule used on the
was put into heliocentric orbit at 0.814 x soft-landing flights. The resolution of the
0.985 AU to study the solar magnetic field, photos was reportedly 15 to 20 meters. A
the solar wind, and cosmic rays at widely technological experiment included testing the
separated points in solar orbit. On 7 efficiency of gear transmission in vacuum as
September 1968, the spacecraft was cor- a test for a future lunar rover. Luna 11,
rectly aligned with the Sun and Earth to launched only two weeks after the U.S. Lunar
begin studying Earth’s magnetic tail. In Orbiter, successfully entered lunar orbit at
1977, eleven years after its launch, Pioneer 7 21:49 UT on 27 August. Parameters were 160
registered the magnetic tail 19.3 million x 1,193 kilometers. During the mission, the
kilometers out, three times further into TV camera failed to return usable images
space than recorded previously. On 20 because the spacecraft lost proper orientation
March 1986, the spacecraft flew within to face the lunar surface when a foreign
12.3 million kilometers of Halley’s Comet object was lodged in the nozzle of one of the
and monitored the interaction between the attitude-control thrusters. The other instru-
cometary hydrogen tail and the solar wind. ments functioned without fault before the
As with Pioneer 6 and Pioneer 8, NASA mission formally ended on 1 October 1966
continues to maintain intermittent contact after the power supply had been depleted.
with Pioneer 7, more than thirty years
after its mission began. On 31 March 1995, 74)
for example, the plasma analyzer was Surveyor 2
turned on during 2 hours of contact with Nation: U.S. (31)
the ground. Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Spacecraft: Surveyor-B
73) Spacecraft Mass: 995.2 kg
Luna 11 Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL
Nation: USSR (43) Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur (AC-7 / Atlas D
Objective(s): lunar orbit no. 194 / Centaur D)
Spacecraft: Ye-6LF (no. 101) Launch Date and Time: 20 September 1966 /
Spacecraft Mass: 1,640 kg 12:32:00 UT
Mission Design and Management: GSMZ Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 36A
Lavochkin Scientific Instruments:
Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. N103-43) 1) imaging system
Launch Date and Time: 24 August 1966 / Results: Surveyor 2, similar in design to its
08:03 UT predecessor, was aimed for a lunar soft-
Launch Site: NIIP-5 landing in Sinus Medii. During the coast to
Scientific Instruments: the Moon, at 05:00 UT on 21 September, one
1) imaging system of three thrusters failed to ignite for a 9.8-
2) gamma-ray detector second midcourse correction and thus put the
3) magnetometer spacecraft into an unwanted spin. Despite as
4) radiation detectors many as thirty-nine repeated attempts to fire
5) infrared radiometer the recalcitrant thruster, the engine failed to
6) meteoroid detectors ignite, and Surveyor 2 headed to the Moon
7) R-1 gear transmission experiment without proper control. Just 30 seconds after
Results: This subset of the “second-generation” retro-fire ignition at 09:34 UT on 22
Luna spacecraft, the Ye-6LF, was designed to September, communications fell out, and the
take the first photographs of the surface of lander crashed on to the surface of the Moon
the Moon from lunar orbit. A secondary objec- at 5°30' north latitude and 12° west longi-
tive was to obtain data on mass concentra- tude, just southeast of Copernicus crater.
tions (“mascons”) on the Moon first detected
by Luna 10. Using the basic Ye-6 bus, a suite

1966 57
 75) Scientific Instruments:
Luna 12 1) imaging system
Nation: USSR (44) 2) micrometeoroid detectors
Objective(s): lunar orbit 3) radiation dosimeters
Spacecraft: Ye-6LF (no. 102) Results: Lunar Orbiter 2’s mission was to pho-
Spacecraft Mass: 1,620 kg tograph thirteen primary and seventeen sec-
Mission Design and Management: GSMZ ondary landings sites for the Apollo program
Lavochkin in the northern region of the Moon’s near side
Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. N103-44) equatorial area. On 10 November 1966, the
Launch Date and Time: 22 October 1966 / 08:42 spacecraft entered a 196 x 1,871-kilometer
UT orbit around the Moon. By 6 December, when
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 31 the probe transmitted back its last photo-
Scientific Instruments: graph, 211 pictures had been taken of both
1) imaging system the near side and large areas of the far side.
2) gamma-ray detector These photos covered nearly four million
3) magnetometer square kilometers of the lunar surface. The
4) radiation detectors high-gain transmitter failed on the same day,
5) infrared radiometer but did not significantly affect the coverage
6) meteoroid detectors afforded by the photos. Lunar Orbiter 2
7) R-1 gear transmission experiment returned perhaps the most memorable photo
Results: Luna 12 was launched to complete the of any in the series, a spectacular shot
mission that Luna 11 had failed to accom- looking across the Copernicus crater from an
plish—take high-resolution photos of the altitude of only 45 kilometers, which vividly
Moon’s surface from lunar orbit. Luna 12 suc- emphasized the three-dimensional nature of
cessfully reached the Moon on 25 October 1966 the lunar surface. On 8 December, after the
and entered a 133 x 1,200-kilometer orbit. The main photographic mission was over, Lunar
Soviet press released the first photos taken of Orbiter 2 fired its main engine to change its
the surface on 29 October—pictures that orbital plane in order to provide tracking
showed the Sea of Rains and the Aristarchus data of the Moon’s gravitational field over a
crater. Resolution was as high as 15 to 20 wider swath. Finally, on 11 October 1967,
meters. Film was developed, fixed, dried auto- when attitude control gas was almost
matically, and scanned for transmission to depleted, a retro-burn deliberately crashed
Earth. No further photos were ever released. the spacecraft onto the lunar surface at 4°
After completing its main imaging mission, south latitude and 98° east longitude on the
Luna 12 was put into a spin-stabilized roll to far side to prevent communications interfer-
carry out its scientific mission, which was ful- ence on future missions.
filled quite successfully. Contact was finally
lost on 19 January 1967 after 302 communica- 77)
tions sessions. Luna 13
Nation: USSR (45)
76) Objective(s): lunar soft-landing
Lunar Orbiter 2 Spacecraft: Ye-6M (no. 205)
Nation: U.S. (32) Spacecraft Mass: 1,620 kg
Objective(s): lunar orbit Mission Design and Management: GSMZ
Spacecraft: LO-B Lavochkin
Spacecraft Mass: 385.6 kg Launch Vehicle: 8K78M (no. N103-45)
Mission Design and Management: NASA LaRC Launch Date and Time: 21 December 1966 /
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena D (no. 18 / Atlas 10:17 UT
D no. 5802 / Agena D no. AD122 / 6631) Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1
Launch Date and Time: 6 November 1966 / Scientific Instruments:
23:21:00 UT 1) TV cameras
Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 13 2) infrared radiometer
3) penetrometer

58 Deep Space Chronicle

 4) radiation densitometer nium-tipped rods that were driven into the
5) radiation detector ground with a powerful force by small explo-
Results: Luna 13 became the second Soviet sive charges to measure soil density (found at
spacecraft to successfully soft-land on the roughly 0.8 grams per cubic centimeter). Four
surface of the Moon. The probe landed in the radiometers recorded infrared radiation from
Ocean of Storms at 18:01 UT on 24 December the surface indicating a noon temperature of
1966, between the Krafft and Seleucus 117 ± 3°C while a radiation detector indi-
craters at 18°52' north latitude and 62°3' cated that radiation levels would be less than
west longitude. Unlike its predecessor, hazardous for humans. The lander returned a
the heavier Luna 13 lander (113 kilograms) total of five panoramas of the lunar surface,
carried a suite of scientific instruments in showing a more smooth terrain than seen by
addition to the usual imaging system. A Luna 9. One of the two cameras (intended to
three-axis accelerometer within the pressur- return stereo images) failed, but this did not
ized frame of the lander recorded the landing diminish the quality of the photographs.
forces during impact to determine the soil After a fully successful mission, contact was
structure down to a depth of 20 to 30 cen- lost at 06:13 UT on 28 December when the
timeters. A pair of spring-loaded booms was onboard batteries were exhausted.
also deployed. Both were equipped with tita-

1966 59

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