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.
Luna 1 instruments to study the Moon and interplanetary space; including a magnetometer, geiger counter, scintillation counter, and micrometeorite detector. "Luna 1" was designed to impact the Moon, delivering two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms that were included into its package. This mission was eventually accomplished by "Luna 2". "Luna 1" was launched at 16:41 GMT (22:41 local time) on 2 January 1959 from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome by a Luna 8K72 rocket. "Luna 1" became the first man-made object to reach the escape velocity of the Earth, along with its carrier rocket's upper stage, which it