In February of 1969, the first launch of the Soviet Moon Rocket, the N-1, exploded. By April, the Soviets still did not have a clear program of subsequent piloted Soyuz fights. In May, the Soviets watched the successful US lunar orbital flight and practice landing of Apollo 10. In June, a Lunar Sample return mission failed when the Block D stage refused to ignite. On July 3rd the second N1 launch failed with a spectacular explosion…
Soviet Luna 15 was designed to take a sample of Lunar soil and return it to Earth
Ye-8 lunar sample return spacecraft – detail of re-entry vehicle Credit: Mark Wade
“It seemed that the nearby and mysterious planet was resorting to tricks to hide the secrets kept beneath its cover of clouds. As the probe drew nearer, Venus’ gravitational field increased its speed. The Doppler effect altered the wavelength of the signals received on Earth. The radio operators needed to be particularly vigilant so that the information sent from the station consistently landed in the narrow “throat” of the ground-based receivers.” Boris Chertok
During 1965 through January 1966, several significant Soviet unmanned scientific missions were launched. Five of the missions will be covered in this episode. We will begin with the Soviet Luna program.