Luna 1 heads for the moon January 2, 1959
The Luna 1 spacecraft broke free of Earth’s gravity – 65 years ago – on this date, to head toward the moon. Many believe this craft – launched by the Soviet Union – was supposed to hit the moon. If it had, it would have been a large coup for the Soviets during the early days of the Space Race with the United States. It didn’t strike the moon, but it did fly successfully past Earth’s neighbor on January 4, 1959.
It zoomed past the moon at a distance of 3,725 miles (5,995 km) after a flight of only 34 hours. Eventually, Luna 1 became the first spacecraft from Earth to go into orbit around our sun.
The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Makes a great New Years gift. Check ’em out here.
Luna 1 scientific results
A cool feature of Luna 1 was its release on January 3, 1959, of a large, glowing, orange trail of gas. The gas was visible over the Indian Ocean with the brightness of 6th magnitude. That’s the same as the faintest star you can see with the eye alone. The gas turned out to be made of sodium vapor. It let astronomers track the spacecraft. Plus, it also served as an experiment on the behavior of gas in outer space.
On its journey to the moon, the 795-pound (360-kilogram) spacecraft also picked up new data on Earth’s mysterious Van Allen radiation belts – a zone of charged particles, held in place by Earth’s magnetic field – which had been discovered only a year before.
Bottom line: On January 2, 1959, the Luna 1 spacecraft broke free of Earth’s gravity, heading toward the moon. It was the first spacecraft from Earth to sweep past the moon, 65 years ago.
Read more about Luna 1
Apollo 8 Earthrise photo anniversary, December 24