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.
The Cosmic Man The Cosmic Man The Cosmic Man is a 1959 independently made black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Harry Marsh and Robert A. Terry, directed by Herbert S. Greene, that stars John Carradine and Bruce Bennett. The film was distributed by Allied Artists. After being tracked at 180,000 mph inside the Earth's atmosphere, a white, spherical object lands in the California desert, accompanied by a strange semi-transparent man-shaped humanoid figure. He appears friendly, but is he really? The film has two reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, both negative. "Except for the silly [alien figure] silhouette, most of the special effects are fair.