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.
Gabriel Luna father died aged 20, three months prior to Luna's birth. He was raised by his mother in Austin, Texas. Luna attended St. Edward's University, where he made his stage debut as Romeo Montague in a production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Luna graduated from St. Edward's in 2005. Luna made his screen acting debut as Kristofer Rostropovich in the drama film "Fall to Grace", which premiered at South by Southwest in March 2005. He then provided voice-over work for the science fiction video game "", which was released in November 2007. Luna is a founding member of the Austin-based