Soviet missions

Soviet missions
Main articles: Luna program and Lunokhod programme
Lunokhod 1 (lit. moonwalker), the first successful space rover.

The Cold War-inspired space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. led to an acceleration of interest in exploration of the Moon. Once launchers had the necessary capabilities, these nations sent unmanned probes on both flyby and impact/lander missions. Spacecraft from the Soviet Union's Luna program were the first to accomplish a number of goals: following three unnamed, failed missions in 1958,[117] the first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was Luna 1; the first man-made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959.

The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966.[39] Rock and soil samples were brought back to Earth by three Luna sample return missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24), which returned 0.3 kg total.[118] Two pioneering robotic spacecrafts of rover type landed on the Moon in 1970 and 1973 as a part of Soviet Lunokhod programme.





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