24 August-1 October 1966: The Luna 11 probe (A.K.A. Lunik 11) lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Molniya-M rocket; Luna 11 entered lunar orbit (27 August), but an attitude-control problem prevented achieving the orientation necessary to photograph the Moon & no photos were returned; radio communications were terminated after 277 orbits (1 October).
Between the secrecy of the Soviet space program, the failure of Luna 11 to return any images, & internet search engines' tendency to cough up Apollo 11 images in response to any query that involves the Moon & the number eleven, I had to rob Peter to pay Paul: the images above are search results for Luna 12, which was of the same design as Luna 11 (type E-6LF). I'll have to pay the piper when the sixtieth aniversary of Luna 12 comes around in the fall.
Ex Luna, scientia.
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