Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to reach the Moon’s surface, impacting it on 14 September 1959.
The Soviet spacecraft launched on 12 September 1959 and traveled directly toward the Moon. It carried instruments that detected the solar wind and helped confirm that the Moon did not possess a substantial magnetic field of its own.
Luna 2 was an impact mission rather than a soft landing: it struck the lunar surface east of Mare Imbrium. Its success provided the first direct evidence that a human-made object could reach another celestial body.
Luna 1, launched earlier in 1959, became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and enter a heliocentric orbit after missing the Moon. The first soft lunar landing came later, when Luna 9 landed in February 1966.