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Mission record

Luna 1969B

Soviet Union · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

NSSDCA’s current planetary chronology independently lists Luna 1969B on 1969-04-15 as an attempted lunar sample-return mission with launch failure, corroborating the date and broad mission class in its tentative-launch page. The sources do not identify a serial number or failure phase. NASA’s Proton history does not corroborate this as a fifth January–April Proton failure, so vehicle identity and whether it reached Earth orbit remain unresolved.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Proton booster
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome)
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Sample return

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    NSSDCA-listed lunar sample-return launch failure; phase unknown

    Earth

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Luna 1969B · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Moon

    • Luna 1969B ascent stage · Spacecraft

      Destinations: Moon

      • Luna 1969B sample return capsule · Return capsule

        Destinations: Earth

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.
  • Separate state histories and release epochs for the listed vehicles; a parent mission trajectory cannot be assigned to every component.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
  • The actual failed-flight state history. Intended destinations are not evidence that the spacecraft reached them.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 5, 2026