On this day in 1965: Soviet Luna 5 crashed into Moon in failed soft-landing attempt
While the mission failed to achieve its primary goal of a soft landing, it remains a significant milestone in the 'Race to the Moon' as the second Soviet spacecraft to ever reach the lunar surface.
Sixty-one years ago today, on 12 May 1965, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 ended its ambitious journey to the Moon not with a gentle touchdown, but with a high-speed impact.
While the mission failed to achieve its primary goal of a soft landing, it remains a significant milestone in the "Race to the Moon" as the second Soviet spacecraft to ever reach the lunar surface.
A bold objective
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Launched on 9 May 1965, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the 1,476kg Luna 5 was a Ye-6 series probe designed to make history. Its mission was to become the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, pave the way for future exploration and study the lunar regolith.
After a successful launch and a mid-course correction on 10 May, the Soviet space programme appeared to be on the verge of a major victory.
Technical failures and impact
The mission began to falter when a flotation gyroscope in the spacecraft's guidance system malfunctioned, causing the probe to spin around its main axis.
The situation worsened when a ground control error prevented the main retrorockets from firing to slow the craft's descent.
With its braking system inoperable, Luna 5 plummeted toward the surface.
It impacted the Moon at approximately 19:10 UTC on 12 May.
The impact site was initially thought to be in Mare Nubium, but later analysis estimated the crash had occurred near Copernicus crater or Lansberg crater.
Scientific 'success' from failure
Though the landing was a failure, the mission provided unexpected scientific data.
The Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory in Georgia managed to capture television images of the event. These images revealed a massive impact plume, measuring roughly 220 by 80 kilometres, that remained visible for 10 minutes.
Decades later, in 2017, a new analysis of these reprocessed images allowed scientists to finally refine the impact coordinates to 1.35° S, 25.48° W.
Researchers also used the data from the 1965 gas cloud to corroborate findings from more modern missions, such as the 2009 LCROSS impact, helping scientists better understand the properties of the Moon's surface.
Today, Luna 5 is remembered as a daring precursor to Luna 9, which would successfully complete the world's first soft landing and first picture from the lunar surface just eight months later.
