The Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-2 has been launched, reaching the surface of the moon for the first time in the world

On September 12, 1959, the Soviet multi-stage Vostok-L carrier rocket was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the Luna-2 automatic interplanetary station (AIS), which reached the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959, for the first time in the history of cosmonautics.

The conquest of outer space began in 1957, when the USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. Following this, the Soviet Union and the United States began developing lunar programs. In the USSR, this area was handled by Special Design Bureau No. 1 under the leadership of chief designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov.

The first attempt to reach the Moon was made on January 2, 1959. However, due to a calculation error, the Luna 1 spacecraft flew past the planet and entered solar orbit, thus becoming the first artificial satellite of the Sun. Although the goal was not achieved, Soviet scientists were convinced that they were on the right track and obtained valuable information about outer space.

The next AMS in the series, Luna 2, was attempted to be launched three times (on September 6, 8, and 9, 1959), but technical problems arose each time. The successful launch of the Vostok-L multistage carrier rocket with the lunar spacecraft on board took place on September 12, 1959, at 09:39:42 Moscow time. After 38 hours, 21 minutes, and 21 seconds of flight, on September 14, 1959, at 00:02:24, Luna 2 reached the Moon in the Sea of Rains near the Aristillus, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.

The station, which was a sealed spherical container, crashed into the planet's surface at a speed of 3.3 km/s, forming a wide crater. Seventy-two pentagonal pennants that had been inside the station's hull remained at the landing site: 12 of them bore the coat of arms of the Soviet Union and the inscription "USSR," while 60 bore a five-pointed star, the inscription "USSR," and the launch date. In addition, the Luna 2 station's hull contained a variety of equipment: Geiger counters, micrometeorite detectors, nuclear radiation detection devices, and three radio transmitters. The information received from Luna 2 showed that the Earth's satellite has virtually no magnetic field or radiation belt of its own. The station also detected the presence of solar wind on the Moon and measured it.

The flight of Luna 2 was the second most significant event of the space age after Yuri Gagarin's flight. The day after the triumphant moon landing of the Soviet station, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev flew to the United States on a state visit, where he visited the White House and presented President Dwight Eisenhower with a copy of the pennant that had been taken to the moon. As Soviet newspapers wrote, "the president expressed his deep gratitude to the Soviet government and said that he would transfer a copy of the pennant to the museum in his hometown of Abilene (Kansas) so that people could see it."

Between 1959 and 1976, the USSR launched a total of 24 Luna series AMSs. In 2023, launches of the series were resumed as part of the Russian lunar program.

Lit.: Крылов Ю. Межпланетная трасса проложена… // Огонёк: еженедельный журнал. 1959. 20 сентября (№ 39 (1684)). С. 5–6; Начало лунной гонки. Секретные материалы // Роскосмос [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://www.roscosmos.ru/26768/; Рязанов Е. Ф. Отчёт об устройстве последней ступени второй советской космической ракеты с АМС «Луна-2» // Космос. Время московское: сборник документов / авт.-сост.: Т. А. Головкина, А. А. Чернобаев. 2011. С. 246–248; Шубин П. Луна. История, люди, техника. М., 2019.

Based on the materials of Presidential Library:

Outer Space: [digital collection]