Luna 2 2" itself. Once "Luna 2" was split from its upper stage it started transmitting information back to Earth using three different transmitters. These transmitters provided precise information on its course, allowing scientists to calculate that "Luna 2" would hit its mark on the Moon around 00:05 on September 14 (Moscow Time). In order to be able to provide a visual from Earth on September 13, the spacecraft released a vapor cloud that would expand to diameter that would be seen by observatories in Alma Ata, Byurakan, Abastumani, Tbilisi, and Stalinabad. This vapor cloud also acted as an experiment to see
Luna 2 a different vehicle, delaying the flight by three days. "Luna 2", like "Luna 1", took a direct path to the Moon, with a velocity high enough to result in a travel time of around 36 hours. "Luna 2" hit the Moon about from the centre of the visible disk on 1959 September 13 at 21:02:24 UTC. "Luna 2" was similar in design to "Luna 1", a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennas and instrumentation. The instrumentation was also similar to Luna 1, including scintillation counters, geiger counters, a magnetometer, Cherenkov detectors, and micrometeorite detectors. There were no propulsion systems on "Luna