As the moon rose, the great 250-ft. dish swung toward it. The sharp beep-beep of Lunik II throbbed in the control room. The signals were coming from the exact point in the starry sky that the ...

Whipping around the moon and returning to the earth is considerably harder than hitting the moon, as Lunik II did. A little too much speed could toss the probe beyond the moon and into an orbit ...

The Russian spacecraft, known as Lunik II, Luna II, and Lunar Probe, set off on its mission to the Moon on the 12 September 1959. The rocket followed a direct path to the Moon and landed two days ...

On January 2, 1959, the Soviet Union kicked off its Luna program, sometimes called Lunik by the Western media, with the launch of Luna 1. This first spacecraft missed the Moon, but the next hit ...

The Russian spacecraft, known as Lunik II, Luna II, and Lunar Probe, set off on its mission to the Moon on the 12 September 1959. The rocket followed a direct path to the Moon and landed two days ...