Achievements
Luna 1 missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to fall into orbit around the Sun.
In 1959, the Luna 2 mission successfully impacted upon the lunar surface, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon.
Luna 3 rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, which can never be seen from Earth.
Luna 9 became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body (February 1966). It returned five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the Lunar surface.
Later that year Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.
Luna 17 and Luna 21 carried vehicles that roamed around on the Moon's terrain (see Lunokhod programme).
Another major achievement of the Luna programme, with the Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 spacecraft, was the ability to collect samples of lunar soil and return them to Earth, by 1970. The program returned 0.326 kg of lunar samples. The Luna missions were the first space-exploration sample return missions to rely solely on advanced robotics.
Read more about this topic: Luna Programme
Famous quotes containing the word achievements:
“Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“Fathers are still considered the most important “doers” in our culture, and in most families they are that. Girls see them as the family authorities on careers, and so fathers’ encouragement and counsel is important to them. When fathers don’t take their daughters’ achievements and plans seriously, girls sometimes have trouble taking themselves seriously.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)