Exploration of the Moon and indeed of human history in general. The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959, by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Though vague by today's standards, the photos showed that the far side of the Moon almost completely lacked maria. In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of landing a human on the Moon. Speaking to a
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.