1959: Luna 2 (USSR)

Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and it impacted the lunar surface west of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.

Luna 2 was similar in design to Luna 1, a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennae and instrument parts. The instrumentation was also similar, including scintillation counters, geiger counters, a magnetometer, Cherenkov detectors, and micrometeorite detectors. There were no propulsion systems on Luna 2 itself.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 1959
• iaf
• space
• ussr
• soviet
• luna
• lunik
• moon

[plauderonkel]

It's Luna 2. Luna 1 made a fly-by in early 1959 but didn't hit the moon.

I noticed that even in case of later Soviet rockt launches Western media used V-2 footage although they must have known that the real rockets looked very different. It's only with the beginning of manned flights in 1961 that the Soviets published real footage and Western public got to know what those rockets looked like.

[bboucharde]

Yes, I instantly noticed that the video shows a V-2 launch, and it is taking off from New Mexico, since no place in Germany has the topography shown. I recall that the US brought V-2's to New Mexico (White Sands Proving Ground), along with German scientists like Von Braun. In 1959, it would have been nearly impossible for an American newsreel company to obtain real footage of an R-7 launch. Now, we have vivid, close, color footage of Soyuz TMA launches that have become routine. What a change!

[bestamerica]

'

nah nah,,,

V2 cannot going to touch the moon,,,

V2 can hit and destroy on ussr russia land

[VIRIATO1995]

WTF? the first rocket is a german V2?

[DonPMitchell]

I've been reading the declassified CIA documents from around then. It's surprising how little they did know about the R-7 rocket. They interviewed the Germans who had been there, but they were never involved in any of the Russian missile projects after R-1.

[billybobmacguyver]

An R-7 looks nothing like the V-2 rocket design they showed in this footage. I guess at this point and time, what information was fit for public consumption was wayyyyy off from the truth anyways, due to the heated and uncertain nature of the cold war at the time.

[robsonhahn]

It is about LUNA 1 and not LUNA 2

[vlad5548]

Thank you !

Good Video !