Cold War (1953–1962) human on the moon. The first of the Lunar missions was Luna 1, which launched on January 2, 1959. Its successful mission established the first rocket engine restart within Earth orbit and the first man-made object to establish heliocentric orbit. Luna 2, which launched on September 14, 1959, established the first impact into another celestial body (the moon). Finally, Luna 3 launched on October 7, 1959 and took the first pictures of the dark side of the moon. After these three missions in 1953, the Soviets continued their exploration of the moon and its environment in 21 other Luna missions.
Space exploration on 16 June 1963. China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of "Vostok 1", on 15 October 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the "Shenzhou 5" (Divine Vessel 5) spacecraft. The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 in 1959. The first automatic landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9 in 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. The first crewed landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969. The first successful interplanetary flyby was the