Wednesday, September 14, 2011

On this day in Russian history...

14 September... 1959


The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.


Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna Programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon. It successfully impacted with the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus.
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.


1 comment: