Mission Type: Impact
Launch Vehicle: 8K72 (no. B1-4)
Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1
Spacecraft Mass: c. 360 kg (with upper stage)
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) three-component magnetometer; 2) two gas-discharge counters; 3) piezoelectric detector; 4) scintillation counter and 5) ion traps
References:
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi
National Space Science Data Center, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The second attempt to impact the Moon failed when, again, the probe never left Earth's atmosphere. The launch vehicle exploded at T+104 seconds due to longitudinal resonant vibrations in the strap-on boosters.
This second Soviet Moon mission was launched about 15 hours after America's second Moon launch -- Pioneer 1/Able 2.