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The first artificial object to fly by the Moon was uncrewed Soviet probe Luna 1 on January 4, 1959, and went on to be the first probe to reach a heliocentric orbit around the Sun. [27] Few knew that Luna 1 was designed to impact the surface of the Moon. The first probe to impact the surface of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a ...
Galileo [9] [10] discovered the Galilean moons. These satellites were the first celestial objects that were confirmed to orbit an object other than the Sun or Earth. Galileo saw Io and Europa as a single point of light on 7 January 1610; they were seen as separate bodies the following night. [11] Callisto: Jupiter IV o: 8 January 1610 p: 13 ...
The first successful probe to fly by another Solar System body was Luna 1, which sped past the Moon in 1959. Originally meant to impact with the Moon, it instead missed its target and became the first artificial object to orbit the Sun. Mariner 2 was the first planetary flyby , passing Venus in 1962.
Glenn's first mission to space was Gemini 8. In 1969, he was named commander of the Apollo 11 mission, which led to his famous first steps on the moon at the age of 38.
First spacecraft to soft land on the far side of the Moon (South Pole–Aitken basin). Landed 3 January 2019 and deployed the Yutu-2 rover. [84] [85] Cottonseeds sprouted in the lander in a biological experiment, the first plants to sprout on the Moon. [86] 123: Beresheet: Beresheet: 22 February 2019: Falcon 9: SpaceIL: Lander: Spacecraft failure
The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
In 2008, NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper equipment on India's Chandrayaan-1 discovered, for the first time, water-rich minerals (shown in blue around a small crater from which they were ejected). The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has since confirmed the existence of surface water ice, using the on-board Moon Mineralogy Mapper .
First extraterrestrial impact and lunar impact, First artificial object on Moon [10] [13] Luna 3: ... Lunar orbiter and impactor; discovered water on the Moon