Luna 10 / E-6S - E-6S lunar orbiter spacecraft. The E-6LF and E-6LS spacecraft may have been similar. Credit: NASA. 24,484 bytes. 218 x 410 pixels.

The E-6LS was a radio-equipped version of the E-6 used to test tracking and communications networks for the Soviet manned lunar program. Otherwise the spacecraft instrumentation was similar to that of the E-6LF and provided data for studies of the interaction of the earth and lunar masses, the lunar gravitational field, the propagation and stability of radio communications to the spacecraft at different orbital positions, solar charged particles and cosmic rays, and the motion of the Moon.

Total Mass: 1,700 kg.

The E-6LS was a radio-equipped version of the E-6 used to test tracking and communications networks for the Soviet manned lunar program. The payload entered the desired orbit as Kosmos-159.

Failed launch of an E-6LS radio-equipped version of the E-6 used to test tracking and communications networks for the Soviet manned lunar program. Suggestions for the abnormal consumption included the seizing up of a pintle valve for controlling fuel supply into the regulator or the seizing up of the fuel inlet control. The upper stages broke up in the atmosphere.

Lunar Orbiter; studied lunar gravitational field, Earth-Moon gravitational relationship, and conducted further scientific experiments in circumlunar space. Not revealed until years later was that the E-6LS was primarily intended to test tracking and communications networks for the Soviet manned lunar program. The Luna 14 spacecraft entered a 140 x 870 km x 42 degree lunar orbit on April 10, 1966. The spacecraft instrumentation was similar to that of Luna 10 and provided data for studies of the interaction of the earth and lunar masses, the lunar gravitational field, the propagation and stability of radio communications to the spacecraft at different orbital positions, solar charged particles and cosmic rays, and the motion of the Moon. This flight was the final flight of the second generation of the Luna series.

• 64 - Varfolomyev, Timothy, Spaceflight, "Soviet Rocketry that Conquered Space - Part 5", 1998, Volume 40, page 85.
• 65 - Novosti Kosmonavtiki, "Otmenenniy Start "Molniya-M"", 1997, Issue 1, page 29.
• 296 - National Space Science Center Planetary Page, As of 19 February 1999.. HTML when accessed: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetary_home.html