Mission Type: Lander
Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. R103-26)
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1
Spacecraft Mass: About 1,470 kg
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) imaging system and 2) radiation detector
References:
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, by Asif A. Siddiqi.

This was the seventh consecutive failure to accomplish a lunar soft-landing by the Soviets. On this mission, engineers redesigned the problematic I-100 guidance system that had caused most of the previous failures.

Previously, the I-100 unit had controlled both the Blok L upper stage and the spacecraft itself. On this mission (and subsequent Lunas), the fourth stage and the Ye-6 spacecraft had separate systems.

Unfortunately, this probe never reached Earth orbit. During the launch, depressurization of a nitrogen pipe for the liquid oxygen tank on the third stage had prevented third-stage engine ignition. The spacecraft broke up over the Pacific without reaching orbit.