View source for Luna 15

{{Short description|1969 Soviet space probe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox spaceflight
| name                   = Luna 15
| image                  = The Soviet Union 1970 CPA 3951 stamp (Luna 16 in Flight (1970.09.12)).jpg
| image_caption          = Soviet postage stamp depicting the Luna 16 spacecraft, similar to Luna 15

| mission_type           = [[Planetary science|Lunar sample return]]
| operator               = Soviet space program
| COSPAR_ID              = 1969-058A
| SATCAT                 = 4036
| mission_duration       = 8&nbsp;days achieved

| spacecraft_bus         = [[Ye-8-5]]
| manufacturer           = [[Lavochkin|GSMZ Lavochkin]]
| dry_mass               = {{Convert|2718|kg|abbr=on}}<ref>{{cite web| url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1969-058A| title=NASA Space Science Coordinated Archive: Luna 15| access-date=21 June 2022}}</ref>
| launch_mass            = {{Convert|5667|kg|abbr=on}}<ref name=solarsystem_nasa_gov/>

| launch_date            = {{Start-date|13 July 1969, 02:54:42|timezone=yes}}&nbsp;UTC<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf|title=Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016|last1=Siddiqi|first1=Asif|publisher=NASA History Program Office|edition=second|year=2018}}</ref>
| launch_rocket          = [[Proton-K]]/[[Blok-D|D]]
| launch_site            = [[Baikonur Cosmodrome|Baikonur]] [[Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81|81/24]]
| launch_contractor      = 
| destroyed              = {{end-date|21 July 1969, 15:51|timezone=yes}}&nbsp;UTC

| orbit_epoch            = 
| orbit_reference        = [[Selenocentric orbit|Selenocentric]]
| orbit_regime           = 
| orbit_periapsis        = 
| orbit_apoapsis         = 
| orbit_inclination      = 
| orbit_period           = 
| apsis                  = selene

| instruments            = {{Plainlist|
* Stereo imaging system
* Remote arm for sample collection
* Radiation detector
}}

| interplanetary    = {{Infobox spaceflight/IP
 | type             = orbiter
 | object           = [[Moon|Lunar]]
 | orbits           = 
 | arrival_date     = 17 July 1969, 10:00&nbsp;UTC
}} {{Infobox spaceflight/IP
 | type             = lander_impact
 | object           = [[Moon|Lunar]]
 | arrival_date     = 21 July 1969, 15:51&nbsp;UTC
 | location         = {{Lunar coords and quad cat|17|N|60|E}}<ref name=solarsystem_nasa_gov/>
}}

| programme          = '''[[Luna programme]]'''
| previous_mission   = ''[[Luna E-8-5 No.402|Luna 1969C]]''
| next_mission       = [[Kosmos 300]]
}}
'''Luna 15''' was a [[robotic space mission]] of the Soviet [[Luna programme]] that was in lunar orbit at the same time as the [[Apollo 11]] spacecraft.

On 21 July 1969, while [[Apollo 11]] astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the [[Moon|lunar surface]]. Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to [[Sample return mission|bring lunar soil back to Earth]], with the goal of beating the US in achieving the first sample return in the [[Moon race]]. The previous mission, designated E-8-5-402, launched on 14 June 1969, did not achieve Earth orbit because the third stage of its launch vehicle failed to ignite. The Luna 15 lander crashed into the Moon at 15:50 UT, hours before the scheduled American launch from the lunar surface.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/5737854/Russian-spacecraft-landed-on-moon-hours-before-Americans.html| title=Russian spacecraft landed on Moon hours before Americans| date=4 July 2009| newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]| location=London| access-date=17 July 2019}}</ref>

==Mission==
Luna 15 was designed to study space around the Moon, the lunar gravitational field, and the chemical composition of lunar rocks. It could also photograph the lunar surface. It was placed in an intermediate Earth orbit after launch and was then sent toward the Moon. After a mid-course correction the day after launch, the spacecraft entered lunar orbit at 10:00 UT on 17 July 1969. It remained in lunar orbit for two days, while controllers checked its systems, and performed two orbital manoeuvres.

After completing 86 communications sessions and 52 orbits of the Moon at various inclinations and altitudes, it began its descent. Astronauts [[Neil Armstrong]] and [[Buzz Aldrin]] had already set foot on the Moon when Luna 15 fired its main [[retrorocket]] engine to initiate descent to the surface at 15:47 UT on 21 July 1969. Transmissions ceased four minutes after de-orbit, at a calculated altitude of {{convert|3|km}}. The spacecraft had probably crashed into the side of a mountain. 

Impact coordinates were 17° north latitude and 60° east longitude, in [[Mare Crisium]]. Luna's impact site is some {{convert|554|km}} north-northeast of the Apollo 11 [[Tranquility Base|landing site]], on a bearing of 328 degrees.<ref name=solarsystem_nasa_gov/> An audio recording of the minutes in which British technicians at the radio telescope facility in [[Jodrell Bank]] observed Luna 15's descent was first made available to the public on 3 July 2009.<ref name="audio"/>

==Implications==
The simultaneous missions became one of the first instances of Soviet–American space-related communication: the Soviet Union released Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11, although its exact mission was not publicized.<ref name="audio">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/recording-tracks-russias-moon-gatecrash-attempt-1730851.html| title=Recording tracks Russia's Moon gatecrash attempt| date=3 July 2009| newspaper=[[The Independent]]| location=London| last=Brown| first=Jonathan}}</ref>

In a race to reach the Moon and return to Earth, the parallel missions of Luna 15 and Apollo 11 represented, in some ways, the culmination of the [[Space Race]] between the space programmes of the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/luna-15/in-depth| title=Missions: Luna 15| website=Solar System Exploration: NASA Science| access-date=18 March 2019| archive-date=10 April 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410114541/https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/luna-15/in-depth| url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{Quote|“I say, this has really been drama of the highest order,”|A British astronomer monitoring Luna 15 from [[Jodrell Bank]], as it was prematurely deorbited and impacted at 15:50 UTC, two hours before Apollo 11's return ascent<ref name="a357">{{cite news | last=Horton | first=Alex | title=The Soviets crashed a spacecraft onto the moon | newspaper=Washington Post | date=2019-07-19 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/19/soviets-tried-beat-apollo-they-crashed-spacecraft-moon-instead/ | access-date=2024-07-17}}</ref>}}

==See also==
* [[List of missions to the Moon]]

==References==
{{Portal|Solar System|Spaceflight}}
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=solarsystem_nasa_gov>{{cite web |url=http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Luna_15&Display=ReadMore |title=Luna 15 |publisher=NASA: Solar System Exploration: Missions to the Moon |access-date=22 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712160337/http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Luna_15 |archive-date=12 July 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna.php Zarya - Luna programme chronology]
* [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1969-058A NASA NSSDC Master Catalog]

{{Moon spacecraft}}
{{Lunar landers}}
{{Luna programme}}
{{Orbital launches in 1969}}

[[Category:Luna programme]]
[[Category:Sample return missions]]
[[Category:Missions to the Moon]]
[[Category:Spacecraft launched in 1969]]
[[Category:1969 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Spacecraft that impacted the Moon]]
[[Category:Spacecraft that orbited the Moon]]
[[Category:1969 on the Moon]]
[[Category:Space missions that ended in failure]]