| E-8-5 No.405 | |
| Mission Type: | Lunar lander Sample return |
| Operator: | Soviet space program |
| Mission Duration: | Failed to orbit |
| Spacecraft Type: | E-8-5 |
| Manufacturer: | NPO Lavochkin |
| Launch Date: | UTC |
| Launch Site: | Baikonur 81/23 |
| Programme: | Luna programme |
| Previous Mission: | Kosmos 305 |
| Next Mission: | Luna 16 |
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 5600kg (12,300lb) 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]
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]