Luna 2 launched 1959

Luna 2, launched September 12, 1959 by the Soviet Union, was the first spacecraft to reach the moon.  It was also the first man-made object to contact another celestial body.  Luna 2 searched for magnetic and radiation fields around the moon, but found none.

It hit the lunar surface at about 7,400 mph and released a sodium vapor cloud so it could be seen from Earth. 

Soviets reach the moon first - 1959

Americans were surprised in the fall of 1957 when the Soviets launched Sputnik I into orbit.  Suddenly, being in last place of a 2-man race to the moon, the Eisenhower Administration accelerated its own space program and launched Explorer I in 1958.

 However, the Soviets raised the bar the following year.  On September 14, 1959 Luna 2 crashed onto the surface of the moon. Luna 1 launched earlier in the year but missed the moon by a ‘tad’, as Elaine (Julie Hagerty’s role in Airplane II) would’ve said. Khruschev used the event to praise the advantages of communism.

Luna 2 wasn’t designated for any more science than reaching its target, but it did verify the moon had minimal or no magnetic field or radiation. It crashed on the side of the Autolycus crater, near the Archimedes crater.

 

 

The large crater to the left is Archimedes and Autolycus is to the right.

Americans began to imagine the Soviets building up an arsenal of weapons which could be fired from space.  But the US won the Space Race when the crew of Apollo put the first man on the moon.