Luna 2 also crash land on the Moon in exactly the same way. Crash landing proved useful even after soft landing was mastered. NASA used crash landings to test whether Moon craters contained ice by crashing space probes into craters and testing the debris that got thrown out. The satellite's impact made it the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. "Luna 2" carried 5 different instruments to conduct various tests while it was on its way to the Moon. The scintillation counters would be used to measure any ionizing radiation; the Cherenkov radiation detectors would be measuring for electromagnetic
Luna 2 how the sodium gas would act in a vacuum and zero gravity. The last stage of the rocket that carried "Luna 2" did not carry any type of tracking device so there was uncertainty as to where it landed, but it did hit the Moon surface about 30 minutes after "Luna 2" hit. For a time, Americans were starting to believe that they were making progress in the space race and that although the Soviets might have had larger rockets, the United States had better guidance systems. This myth was busted after the Soviets were able to crash "Luna 2"