Mission Details
| Mission Name: Luna 2 |
| Mission Type: Lunar Impact |
| Operator: Soviet Union (Roscosmos) |
| Launching State: Soviet Union/Russia |
| Location: Mare Imbrium / Palus Putredinus |
| Latitude: 29.1 |
| Longitude: 0 |
| Launch Date: 12 September 1959, 06:39:42 UT |
| Landing Date: 14 September 1959, 23:02:23 UT |
| Objects on or Related to Site: Luna 2 Commemorative Pennants |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Luna 2, also known as Lunik 2 or the Second Cosmos Rocket, was the second of a series of spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. The mission achieved the first spacecraft to land on the Moon. Luna 2 impacted the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.
Read more:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1959-014A
Heritage Consideration
The Luna 2 mission marked the first time an object made by a human being made impacted a celestial body other than Earth. The mission confirmed that the Moon has no appreciable magnetic field.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Luna 2 | |
| Cospar: 1959-014A | |
| Norad: N/A | |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. | |
| Launch Date: 5 February 1967, 01:17:00 UT | |
| Landing Date: 14 September 1959, 23:02:23 UT | |
| Deployment: N/A | |
| End Date: 9 October 1967 | |
| Function: N/A | |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
The Luna 2 spacecraft was the first human made item to reach the surface of the Moon. Luna 2 did not have a propulsion system itself. It carried sensors to study interplanetary space and sodium gas to enable Earthbound observers to follow its progress. It also carried pennants imprinted with “CCCP” and “1959.” The third stage of the rocket that propelled Luna 2 to the Moon also impacted the lunar surface but at an as yet unknown location.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Commemorative Pennants |
| Cospar: 1959-014A |
| Norad: N/A |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. |
| Launch Date: 12 September 1959, 06:39:42 UT |
| Landing Date: 14 September 1959, 23:02:23 UT |
| Deployment: N/A |
| End Date: N/A |
| Function: Symbolic |
| Image Sources: NASA and mentallandscape.com |
Description
Luna 2 carried two spheres filled with liquid and an explosive charge, designed to burst apart on impact and scatter pentagonal pennants. The penannts were imprinted with: 1) Sentiabr 1959 (September 1959); CCCP, Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Republik (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics); and the state seal of the USSR, a wreath of grain around the hammer and sickle. It is theorized that the medallions vaporized on impact.
