  luna 11 (e-6lf series) was an unmanned space mission of the soviet union's luna program. it was also called lunik 11. luna 11 was launched towards the moon from an earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 august 1966. the objectives of the mission included the study of: * lunar gamma and x-ray emissions in order to determine the moon's chemical composition; * lunar gravitational anomalies; * the concentration of meteorite streams near the moon; * the intensity of hard corpuscular radiation near the moon. 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the moon were completed before the batteries failed on 1 october 1966. this subset of the âsecond-generationâ luna spacecraft, the ye-6lf, was designed to take the first photographs of the surface of the moon from lunar orbit. a secondary objective was to obtain data on mass concentrations (âmasconsâ) on the moon first detected by luna 10. using the ye-6 bus, a suite of scientific instruments (plus an imaging system similar to the one used on zond 3) replaced the small lander capsule used on the soft-landing flights. the resolution of the photos was 15 to 20 meters. a technological experiment included testing the efficiency of gear transmission in vacuum as a test for a future lunar rover. luna 11, launched only two weeks after the u.s. lunar orbiter, entered lunar orbit at 21:49 ut on 27 august. parameters were 160 x 1,193 kilometers. during the mission, the tv camera failed to return usable images because the spacecraft lost proper orientation to face the lunar surface when a foreign object was lodged in the nozzle of one of the attitude-control thrusters. the oth
1966_in_the_Soviet_Union Luna_program Spacecraft_launched_by_Molniya-M_rockets Spacecraft_launched_in_1966 Spacecraft_that_orbited_the_Moon