Launch Date	Apr. 22, 1968
Launch Site	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Russia | Launch Site 81P
Destination	Earth’s Moon
Type	Flyby (Circumlunar)
Status	Unsuccessful
Nation	Soviet Union
Alternate Names	N/A

Goals

This uncrewed mission was the third in a series intended to lay the groundwork for sending Soviet cosmonauts to orbit and eventually land on the moon.

Accomplishments

None. A malfunction shut the engine down only minutes after launch. The spacecraft's emergency rescue system did work. The payload capsule was ejected and recovered about 520 kilometers away

In Depth

During this third attempt at a circumlunar mission, the Proton rocket's second stage engine spuriously shut down at T+194.64 seconds due to an erroneous signal from the payload.

The emergency rescue system was activated, and the 7K-L1 capsule was later recovered about 520 kilometers from the launch pad.

Spacecraft

Launch Vehicle: 8K82K + Blok D (Proton K no. 232-01 / Blok D no. 15L)

Spacecraft Mass: 5,375 kilograms

Spacecraft Instruments:

Unknown

Selected References

Siddiqi, Asif A. Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, NASA, 2002.