This Soviet stamp celebrates Luna 1 -- even as it shows how the craft missed the Moon. Credit: Post of USSR/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
In the midst of the Space Race – a little over a year since Sputnik’s launch – the Soviet Union scored another win when Luna 1 took off for the Moon. On Jan. 2, 1959, the spacecraft launched, releasing a tail of glowing sodium gas the following day to help astronomers track it, and by Jan. 4, it was approaching the Moon. A two-degree error in pointing a radio-control antenna skewed the craft’s navigational track, sending it past the Moon at a distance of 3,725 to 4,660 miles (5,000 to 7,500 kilometers) and eventually putting it in orbit around the Sun – the “first artificial planet.” Despite missing the Moon, the Soviets had become the first to achieve escape velocity when Luna 1 broke away from Earth’s gravity.
