Luna 7

Luna 7 was a Soviet Union Luna program mission launched in 1965. Its intended goal was a soft landing on the Moon, the first successful achievement of which would be a significant accomplishment for the Soviet space program.

Launched on October 4, 1965, Luna 7 reached lunar orbit. However, during the descent phase, premature firing of the retrorockets led to the spacecraft impacting the lunar surface at high velocity. The impact site was in Oceanus Procellarum, west of the crater Kepler.

Despite the failure to achieve a soft landing, Luna 7 gathered valuable data during its flight, contributing to the understanding of the lunar environment and refining techniques for future landing attempts. It was part of a series of attempts by the Soviet Union to achieve a successful lunar soft landing before the United States. The failure was attributed to an error in the attitude control system.