What was the Luna Program?
The Luna program consisted of a series of robotic probes sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Out of the more than 30 attempts, fifteen were successful, and achieved many significant firsts in space exploration. Even some of the “failures” achieved significant firsts, such as Luna 1, launched in 1959, which missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to orbit the Sun. Luna 2, launched in 1959, was the first man-made object to reach the moon, which it impacted with a hard landing. Later that same year, Luna 3 rounded the Moon and returned the first images of the lunar far side. Much to the astonishment of scientists, the far side of the Moon was largely smooth, lacking the large dark mare (“seas”) characteristic of the side that faces the Earth. In February 1966, Luna 9 became the first space probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body, returning the first close-up images of the Moon’s surface. This served as an important
The Luna program consisted of a series of robotic probes sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Out of the more than 30 attempts, fifteen were successful, and achieved many significant firsts in space exploration. Even some of the “failures†achieved significant firsts, such as Luna 1, launched in 1959, which missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to orbit the Sun. Luna 2, launched in 1959, was the first man-made object to reach the moon, which it impacted with a hard landing. Later that same year, Luna 3 rounded the Moon and returned the first images of the lunar far side. Much to the astonishment of scientists, the far side of the Moon was largely smooth, lacking the large dark mare (“seas†) characteristic of the side that faces the Earth. In February 1966, Luna 9 became the first space probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body, returning the first close-up images of the Moon’s surface. This served as an
