Soviet Luna missions

The Soviet Luna missions were a series of space missions launched by the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the 1970s aimed at exploring the Moon. These missions included spacecraft that orbited, landed on, and even returned samples from the Moon. Notably, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to impact the Moon in 1959, and Luna 9 achieved the first soft landing in 1966, sending back images of the lunar surface. The program demonstrated significant advancements in space technology and contributed valuable scientific data about the Moon's composition and geography, highlighting the intense competition of the Space Race era.