Luna 2 impact

Luna 2 · 1959 CE · The Moon

Luna 2 impact — Luna 2 · 1959 CE · The Moon — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Strike the Moon with Soviet pennants aboard.

Historical context

After three failures in 1958, a miss in January and another failure in June 1959, Korolev's team launched its sixth moon rocket in September 1959, with Soviet pennants aboard. It struck the Moon on the eve of Khrushchev's visit to the United States, and Moscow had the British observatory at Jodrell Bank witness the impact.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Aimed at the Moon

    12 September 1959

    At 06:39 UTC on 12 September 1959, 09:39 Moscow time, the Second Cosmic Rocket lifts off from Tyuratam on a direct path to the Moon.

  2. Thirty-eight hours to the Moon

    12 September 1959

    The probe and its spent third stage coast for a little over a day and a half, and at 18:42 UTC on 12 September the stage releases its sodium cloud.

  3. Witnessed from Cheshire

    13 September 1959

    At Jodrell Bank, Bernard Lovell's great dish follows the probe through the evening of 13 September and hears its signal stop at 21:02:23 UTC.

  4. Into the Marsh of Decay

    13 September 1959

    At 21:02 UTC on 13 September, 00:02 Moscow time on 14 September, the probe strikes the Moon between the craters Archimedes and Autolycus; Siddiqi counts it the first object of human origin to make contact with another celestial body.

  5. A gift in Washington

    15 September 1959

    On 15 September Khrushchev arrives in Washington and gives Eisenhower a replica of the pennant sphere, in a wooden case lined with light blue velvet.

Outcome

Struck the Moon on 13 September 1959 (UTC): by Siddiqi's account, the first object of human origin to make contact with another celestial body.

Luna 2

Soviet probe that struck the Moon on 13 September 1959 (UTC): in Siddiqi's words, the first object of human origin to make contact with another celestial body.

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Sources

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