The Soviet Union launches unmanned space probe Luna 7 to land on the moon, having spent months analyzing the failed flights of Luna 5 and 6 and implementing safeguards against those failures. Unforuntately, however, a different technical problem strikes Luna 7 just hours away from the moon’s surface, preventing it from firing its braking rockets. Luna 7 does reach the moon, but not at a survivable speed, crashing into the surface very close to its intended landing site.
