Goals: Launched 2 weeks after NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1, Luna 11 was designed to take the Soviet Union's first pictures of the surface of the Moon from lunar orbit and to obtain data on the Moon's composition, the mass concentrations first detected by Luna 10, and the lunar environment.

Accomplishments: The TV system failed to return usable images, but the other instruments functioned properly. The spacecraft completed 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the Moon before its batteries were depleted.