Luna 6

Launch data: Designation 01393 / 65044A Launch date 08 Jun 1965 - 07:40 UT Launch site B, LC1 Launch vehicle Molniya 8K78M (U103-31) Satellite type  E-6 (#7) Mission Highlight Lunar flyby 159 612.8 km on June 11, 1965 Heliocentric orbit

Failed to achieve soft landing, missed Moon by 160.000 km on 11 Jun 1965.

Specifications:

Mission details:

• Luna 6 (E-6 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 6. Luna 6 was intended to travel to the Moon, but, because a midcourse correction failed, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km.
• On this ninth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft-landing, the soft-land spacecraft was initialy put into an earth parking orbit of 246 x 167 km at 64.8° with a period of 88.7 min, before being sent on its way to the moon. Twelve communications sesions were made with the craft on both 8th and 9th June, but during the mid-course correction burn on 10th June, the engine fired but didn't stop, and the 1422 kg probe missed the moon by 160000 km on 11th June passing into solar orbit.
• An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down. Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished. Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit. Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.