Luna E-1 No.2
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Luna 1958B)
Luna E-1 No.2,[1] sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958B,[2] was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1958. It was a 361-kilogram (800 lb) Luna E-1 spacecraft, the second of four to be launched,[3] all of which were involved in launch failures.[4] It was intended to impact the surface of the Moon, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface.
The spacecraft was intended to release 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be observed from Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked.[5] Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted Lunar impact mission.[2]
Luna E-1 No.2 was launched on 11 October 1958 atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket,[4] flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.[1] One hundred and four seconds after launch, longitudinal resonance within the rocket's strap-on booster rockets caused the vehicle to disintegrate.[4] This was the same problem which had caused the loss of Luna E-1 No.1 three weeks earlier.[4]
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Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Manned flights are indicated in bold text. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in brackets.
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