| E-1 No.3 | |
| Mission Type: | Lunar impactor |
| Operator: | Soviet space program |
| Mission Duration: | Failed to orbit |
| Manufacturer: | OKB-1 |
| Programme: | Luna programme |
| Previous Mission: | Luna 1958B |
| Next Mission: | Luna 1 |
| Launch Rocket: | Luna 8K72 |
| Launch Site: | Baikonur 1/5 |
Luna E-1 No.3, sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1958C,[1] was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1958. It was a 361kg (796lb) Luna E-1 spacecraft, the third of four to be launched,[2] all of which were involved in launch failures. It was intended to impact the surface of the Moon, and in doing so become the first man-made object to reach its surface.
The spacecraft was intended to release of sodium, in order to create a cloud of the metal which could be observed from Earth, allowing the spacecraft to be tracked.[3] Prior to the release of information about its mission, NASA correctly identified that it had been an attempted Lunar impact mission.[1]
Luna E-1 No.3 was launched on 4 December 1958 atop a Luna 8K72 carrier rocket,[4] flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.[5] Two hundred and forty five seconds into the flight, a hydrogen peroxide pump seized up due to loss of lubrication, which caused the rocket's core stage engines to fail.[4]