Luna 1960A (E-3 series) was the second Soviet attempt to photograph the far side of the Moon. The first being the highly successful Luna 3 mission. It was launched on April 15, 1960. Luna 1960A was designed to duplicate the Luna 3 mission, but with higher resolution cameras and a closer approach to the Moon. Bulk silicate composition (estimated wt%) SiO2 44. ... Luna 3, an automatic interplanetary station of the Luna program, was the third spacecraft successfully launched to the Moon and the first to return images of the lunar far side. ...
The mission was a failure. During launch, the second stage of the rocket cut-off prematurely. The spacecraft either fell back to Earth or entered a elliptical orbit.
Luna 3, an automatic interplanetary station of the Luna program, was the third spacecraft successfully launched to the Moon and the first to return images of the lunar far side. ... The Luna programme (occasionally called Lunik) was a series of unmanned space missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. ...