Luna 3: first images of the far side of the Moon
Luna 3: primeras imágenes de la cara oculta de la Luna
- Date
- 7 de octubre de 1959 · confidence high
- Place
- Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan (USSR)
- Credited to
- Soviet Luna programme (Sergei Korolev's OKB-1)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
The Luna 3 probe, launched on 4 October 1959, flew around the Moon and photographed its far side with a film camera developed on board and transmitted by a television signal. The images showed a surface with few maria and many craters.
Twenty-nine photos were taken (about 17 resolved) on 7 October; the far-side nomenclature was published in 1960.
What it led to
- the first map of the far side, with names such as Mare Moscoviense and Tsiolkovskiy crater
- the first use of the Moon's gravity on a return trajectory
- film-based probe photography techniques