1957–1969: Opening the Space Age
Luna 2
First human-made object to reach the Moon.
Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- 12 Sep 1959
- Lead / partner
- Soviet Union
- Target
- Moon
- Category
- Lunar impact
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- Luna 8K72
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- Heliocentric
- Duration
- Approximately 62 hours
Why it happened
Luna 2 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
Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach another celestial body when it crash-landed on the Moon in September 1959, ending the mission by design. Along the way it confirmed the Moon has no significant magnetic field, and it scattered Soviet pennants across the lunar surface on impact.
Results
First human-made object to reach the Moon.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Gregory H. Revera, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · license: cc-by-sa-3.0 (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
