Mission record
Luna 1
Also known as Mechta, First Cosmic Ship, Ye-1 No. 4
U.S.S.R · Launched
Explore trajectoryCompleted · Partial success
The first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first to enter heliocentric orbit, though it missed its intended lunar impact.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 1st Generation Upper Stage
- Launch site
- Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
- Countries
- Soviet Union
- Mission types
- Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Deployment
Luna 1 probe separated from Blok-E
The upper stage continued independently after releasing the probe. This event does not assign it the probe trajectory.
EarthMilestone
Blok-E upper stage released a sodium cloud
NASA's chronology reports the release about 113,000 km from Earth; this scalar range does not determine a state vector.
EarthFlyby
Luna 1 passed the Moon
NASA SP-2002-4524 summarizes the encounter as about 34 hours after launch at about 6,400 km; NASA SP-34 gives about 36 hours and 7,500 km. These rounded summaries conflict and neither supplies an encounter state.
MoonMilestone
Goldstone recorded angular tracking observations
Project Space Track testimony places the observation set between about 12:00 and 14:00 GMT, centered near 13:00. The angular data were compared with Soviet position announcements; they did not independently provide range or speed.
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Trajectory record
Trajectory dataset not yet available
Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.
What is needed to reconstruct this path?
- A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements including orientation and phase.
- Reconciliation of the conflicting NASA SP-34 and NORAD 1965 heliocentric orbit summaries.
- Approach/departure directions and burn vectors between reported encounter observations.
- Separate state histories and release epochs for Luna 1 and the Blok-E upper stage.
- Contemporary TASS subpoints/ranges have undefined geodetic datum, distance origin, angular reference frame, observation errors and vehicle attribution.
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Luna 1 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Space Flight Handbooks, Volume2: Lunar Flight Handbook, Part1—Background Material, NASA SP-34 (1963) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Luna1 Spacecraft and Subsystems, current NSSDCA record — NSSDCATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Jodrell Bank’s role in early space tracking activities, Part1 — Sven Grahn archival history — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958–2000, NASA/SP-2002-4524 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Soviet Space Technology: Hearings before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics and Special Subcommittee on the Lunik Probe (1959) — OTHERArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- North American Air Defense Command Weekly Intelligence Review, 35/65, 27 August 1965, p. 20 — OTHERArchive · Supports: mission claims
- Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016: Ye-1 and Ye-1A instrument and power inventories — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context