The Impact of LUNA 2 in 1959


1959 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 is launched into space. The first spacecraft to land on the moon. It was also the first spacecraft to reach another non-Earth asteroid. There have been 24 launches in the Luna line, 15 of which were successful. Luna 2 was launched from Earth and reached the Moon in 36 hours. Until it reached the moon, the Americans thought they were leading the way in space exploration. 

Pioneer 4 was the closest American spacecraft to the moon during this period, passing by at a distance of 60,000 km. The success of Luna 2 prompted US President John F. Kennedy to speak at Rice University saying that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and to this day the belief that the Americans had landed on the moon in 1969 was a lie. There is no air on the moon. But it is pointed out that the image is like a planted flag flying. 



This is how NASA learned that Luna 2, without landing gear, could crash land on the lunar surface. Even after the advent of safe-landing technologies, NASA often conducts such crash landings to determine the nature of the probe's surface, if it is icy. Soviet President Khrushchev presented President Eisenhower with a model of the Pennant probe used on Luna 2 when he came to the United States. It is housed in the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas.