Luna E-8-5 No. 405

Luna E-8-5 No.405, also known as Luna Ye-8-5 No.405, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1970A,^[1] was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1970. It was a 5,600-kilogram (12,300 lb) Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the fifth of eight to be launched.^[2][3] It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth.^[2]

E-8-5 No.405

A Ye-8-5 model in the Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow.
Mission type	Lunar lander Sample return
Operator	Soviet space program
Mission duration	Failed to orbit
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	E-8-5
Manufacturer	NPO Lavochkin
Launch mass	5,600 kilograms (12,300 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	6 February 1970, 04:16:06 (1970-02-06UTC04:16:06Z) UTC
Rocket	Proton-K/D s/n 247-01
Launch site	Baikonur 81/23
Luna programme ← Kosmos 305 Luna 16 →

Launch

Luna E-8-5 No.405 was launched at 04:16:06 UTC on 6 February 1970 atop a Proton-K 8K78K carrier rocket with a Blok-D upper stage, flying from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.^[4] A defective pressure sensor caused the first stage to shut down 128 seconds after launch. The booster crashed downrange.^[5] Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted sample return mission.^[1]