1957–1969: Opening the Space Age
Luna 1
First spacecraft to pass near the Moon.
Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- 12 Sep 1959
- Lead / partner
- Soviet Union
- Target
- Moon
- Category
- Lunar flyby
- Status
- Partial success
- Vehicle
- Luna 8K72 s
- Mass
- 390 kg
- Orbit / trajectory
- unknown
- Duration
- 2 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes, 41 seconds
Why it happened
Luna 1 flew during 1957–1969: Opening the Space Age, as part of Soviet Union's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First spacecraft to pass near the Moon.
Results
First spacecraft to pass near the Moon.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- NASA/NSSDCA (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
