What was the first spacecraft to reach the Moon?

The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was Luna 2.

The Soviet Luna 2 mission launched on September 12, 1959, and reached the lunar surface on September 13 UTC, becoming the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body. It was an impactor rather than a lander: the spacecraft intentionally crashed into the Moon near the eastern part of Mare Imbrium.

Luna 1 came before it, but it missed the Moon by several thousand kilometers and became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravitational influence into a heliocentric orbit. Apollo 11 arrived much later, in 1969, and was the first crewed mission to land astronauts on the Moon.

Luna 2 carried instruments that investigated the Moon’s environment and solar wind. It also released a visible sodium-vapour cloud, helping observers track its approach. Its success was a major early milestone in the Space Race and demonstrated that a spacecraft could navigate from Earth to another world.