2 JAN 1959: Officially, the Soviets had no interest in landing a man on the moon. Officially. In rea
2 JAN 1959: Officially, the Soviets had no interest in landing a man on the moon. Officially. In reality, they were taking small steps and making giant leaps every day. The Luna 1 spacecraft, pictured above, was meant to crash into the moon and send back reams of data. Instead, the probe missed its target, much to the chagrin of Korolev and Khrushchev. Accomplishments came within 6,000 kilometers of the moon, a record for the day on missing the moon, it entered orbit around the sun–the first “man made planet” most reliable measurements of the solar wind released a sodium cloud while 120,000 kilometers from earth. The glowing trail was visible from earth, making it the first “artificial comet” -- source link
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