Luna 8 velocity sufficiently for a survivable landing, "Luna 8" plummeted to the lunar surface and crashed at 21:51:30 UT on 6 December in the west of Oceanus Procellarum. The coordinates of the crash site are . Luna 8 Luna 8 (E-6 series), also known as Lunik 8, was a lunar space probe of the Luna program. It was launched in on December 3, 1965 with the objective of achieving a soft landing on the Moon. However, its retrorocket firing occurred too late, and suffered a hard impact on the lunar surface on the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). The mission did
Luna 2 "СССР январь 1959" ("USSR January 1959") on the other side. They most likely vaporized on impact, however. The third pennant was located in the last stage of the "Luna 2" rocket, which collided with the Moon's surface 30 minutes after the spacecraft did. It was a capsule filled with liquid, with aluminium strips placed into it. On each of these strips the USSR Coat of Arms, the words "1959 январь" ("1959 January"), and the words "СОЮЗ СОВЕТСКИХ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИХ РЕСПУБЛИК" (English: "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics") were engraved. On September 15, 1959, the premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, presented