Luna 5

Description

The Luna 5 automatic interplanetary station was designed to continue investigations of a lunar soft landing. The spacecraft carried an imaging system and a radiation detector. After launch fom Baikonur on 9 May 1965 at 7:49:37 UT and 5 successful communications sessions the spacecraft performed a midcourse correction maneuver on 10 May. Unfortunately a problem developed in a flotation gyroscope in the I-100 guidance control unit and control was lost so the spacecraft began spinning around its main axis. It was brought back under control, but at the time of the next maneuver, the main retrorocket system failed due to a ground control error, and the spacecraft, though still headed for the Moon, was far off its intended landing site. Problems again cropped up with the I-100 unit so a retrorocket burn could not take place and Luna 5 impacted the lunar surface, becoming the second Soviet probe to hit the Moon. A Soviet announcement gave the impact point as the Sea of Clouds at roughly 31 degrees S, 8 degrees W, although a later analysis gave a very different position of 8 degrees N, 23 degrees W.