1959: The space probe Luna 3 takes the first photographs of the dark side of the moon.
The radio-controlled Luna 3 was part of the Soviet Union’s highly successful lunar program, which completed 20 missions to the moon between January 1959 and October 1970.
Although the United States won the race to land a human on the moon, the Russians achieved a number of their own lunar milestones, including the first flyby (Luna 1), first surface impact (Luna 2), first soft landing (Luna 9) and first lunar orbiter (Luna 10).
Luna 3’s mission objective was to provide the first photographs from the moon’s far side. To achieve this, the probe was equipped with a dual-lens 35mm camera, one a 200mm, f/5.6 aperture, the other a 500mm, f/9.5. The photo sequencing was automatically triggered when Luna 3’s photocell detected the sunlit far side, which occurred when the craft was passing about […]
Original post by Tony Long
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