Mission Type: Lander
Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. R103-25)
Launch Site: NIIP-5
Spacecraft Mass: c. 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, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi
Yet another Soviet attempt to soft-land a Ye-6 probe on the lunar surface ended in failure when the Blok L upper stage failed to fire for the translunar injection burn. Instead, the spacecraft remained stranded in Earth orbit.
A later investigation indicated that there had been a short circuit in an inverter within the I-100 guidance system of the spacecraft (which also controlled the Blok L stage) preventing engine ignition. The spacecraft's orbit decayed five days later.
This was the Soviet Union's 30th interplanetary launch.