Luna 2 was the first human-made object to reach the Moon’s surface.
The Soviet Union launched Luna 2 on 12 September 1959. It followed a direct trajectory toward the Moon and impacted the lunar surface on 14 September, near the region between Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis. The mission provided the first direct evidence that the Moon had no substantial global magnetic field and detected the solar wind.
Luna 2 carried instruments including scintillation counters, magnetometers and detectors for charged particles. It also carried small pennants bearing the Soviet emblem, designed to spread on impact.
Luna 1, launched earlier in 1959, became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and enter heliocentric orbit, but it missed the Moon. Luna 2 was an impact mission rather than a soft landing; the first successful soft landing came later with Luna 9 in 1966.