Mission Type: Flyby
Launch Vehicle: 8K72 (no. Il-9a)
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1
Spacecraft Mass: Unknown
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) Yenisey-2 photographic-TV imaging; 2) micrometeoroid detector and 3) cosmic-ray detector
References:
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi

This was the last of the "first-generation" Soviet probes to the Moon. Like its immediate predecessor, it was designed to photograph the far side of the Moon.

Unfortunately, the probe never left Earth's atmosphere. Instead, immediately after launch, at T+10 seconds, the launch vehicle began to fall apart. As each strap-on fell away, parts of the booster landed separately over a large area near the launch site. Thundering explosions broke windows in many nearby buildings.