Luna 3
Sign in to savelunar probe, first-ever mission to photograph the far side of the Moon
Key facts
- Mission type
- Lunar flyby
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Harvard designation
- 1959 Theta 1
- Cospar id
- 1959-008A
- Mission duration
- 18 days (launch day to last contact day)
- Spacecraft
- Ye-2A No.1
- Manufacturer
- OKB-1
- Launch mass
- 278.5 kilograms (614 lb)
- Launch date
- 4 October 1959, 00:43:40 ( 1959-10-04UTC00:43:40Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Luna 8K72 (No I1-8)
- Launch site
- Baikonur 1/5
- Last contact
- 22 October 1959 ( 1959-10-23 )
- Decay date
- 29 April 1960
- Reference system
- Geocentric
- Regime
- Highly elliptical , ( circumlunar )
- Semi major axis
- 256,620.50 kilometres (159,456.59 mi)
- Perigee altitude
- 500 kilometres (310 mi)
- Apogee altitude
- 499,999 kilometres (310,685 mi)
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 (Russian: Луна 3), was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. The historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest when they were published around the world, and a tentative Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was created from the pictures.
These views showed mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two dark, low-lying regions, which were named Mare Moscoviense (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire). Mare Desiderii was later found to be composed of a smaller mare, Mare Ingenii (Sea of Cleverness), and several other dark craters. The reason for this difference between the two sides of the Moon is still not fully understood, but it seems that most of the dark lavas that flowed out to produce the maria formed under the Earth-facing half.