Luna 2

• First lunar impact; hit Moon 13 Sep 1959 at 21h 02m 23s - 1e crash-landed on Moon
  Impact: 30?N, 1?W in the Sea of Serenity, about 435 km from the moon's centre face, after 34 hour flight covering 381369 km distance.
• During the flight, at a distance of 145 000 km a sodium cloud was released (as on Luna-1). The 390.2 kg probe was accompanied by two other spheres of 9 cm and 15 sm diameter covered magnetically with pennants portraying the Soviet coat of arms intended to be scattered around the impact site.
• Shortly before impact at 11 882 kph, the probe detected radiation which could be an "ionosphere" about 10 000 km from the moon.

Specifications:

Mission details:

• Scientifically, Luna 2 is most famous for confirming the earlier detection of the solar wind by Luna 1, via its hemispherical ion traps designed by Konstantin Gringauz. Luna 1 had provided the first evidence of this phenomenon; on Luna 2, Gringauz changed the four sensors to a tetrahedral arrangement, instead of planar, to get better measurements of the plasma flux.
• 06 Sep 1959 (00:49): Scheduled launch attempt for Luna 2 (E-1-6) - the launch is aborted.
• 08 Sep 1959 (02:40): Scheduled launch attempt for Luna 2 (E-1-6) - the launch is aborted
• 09 Sep 1959 (03:40): Scheduled launch attempt for Luna 2 (E-1-6) - the launch is aborted.
• 12 Sep 1959 (06:39): Luna 2 (E-1-6) spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Vostok rocket on a mission to hit the Moon by way of a direct ascent trajectory.
• Luna 2 separated from its third stage, which travelled along with it towards the Moon.
• 12 Sep 1959 (12:00): Luna 2 is 126,400 kilometres from Earth above a point to the north of New Guinea.
• 12 Sep 1959 (18:39): En-route to the Moon, the upper stage of Luna 2 launching rocket releases a cloud of sodium vapour, the glow from which is used to aid visual measurement of the trajectory - it is observed in the constellation Aquarius at a stellar magnitude between 4 and 5
• 13 Sep 1959 (21:02): Luna 2 impacts on the Moon at a speed of three kilometres per second. The impact point, in the Palus Putredinis region, is roughly estimated to have occurred at 0 degrees longitude, 29.1 degrees N latitude1959, thus becoming the first object of human origin to make contact with another celestial body.
• 13 Sep 1959 (~21:32): Some 30 minutes after Luna 2, the third stage of its rocket also impacted the Moon. The mission confirmed that the Moon had no appreciable magnetic field, and found no evidence of the Moon having radiation belts.
• Luna 2 showed time variations in the electron flux and energy spectrum within the outer belt.
• Luna 2 was instrumented with a three component fluxgate magnetometer, similar to that used on Luna 1, but with the dynamic range reduced by a factor of 4 to -750 to +750 nanoteslas (gammas) so that the quantization uncertainty was -12 to +12 nT. The spacecraft spin period was 840 seconds about the major axis, and there was a precession with a period of 86 seconds. The sampling rate of the instrument was approximately once per minute. According to the Principal Investigator, the errors associated with the experiment zero levels and spacecraft fields were such that the accuracy was approximately 50 to 100 nT. The spacecraft gave results similar to those of Luna 1 in the Earth's radiation belts and, upon impact, placed an upper limit of 100 nT on the lunar magnetic field at the surface.

USSR pennants:

• 

  Picture of the USSR pennants, delivered
  by Luna 2 to the moon

  
  
• The spacecraft also carried Soviet pennants. Two of them, located in the spacecraft, were sphere-shaped, with the surface covered by identical pentagonal elements. In the center of this sphere was an explosive for the purpose of slowing the huge impact velocity. This was designed as a very simple way to provide the last necessary delta-v for those elements on the retro side of the sphere to not get vaporized. Each pentagonal element was made of stainless steel and had the USSR Coat of Arms and the Cyrillic letters CCCP relief engraved on one side, and the words USSR SEPTEMBER 1959(in Russisch) relief engraved on the other side. The third pennant was located in the last stage of the Luna 2 rocket, which impacted the moon 30 minutes after the spacecraft did. It was a capsule filled with liquid, with aluminium strips placed into it. On each of these strips the USSR Coat of Arms, the words 1959 SEPTEMBER (in Russisch) and the words UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS (in Russisch) were engraved.
• On September 15, 1959, the premier of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, presented to the American president Dwight D. Eisenhower a copy of the spherical pennant as a gift. That sphere is located at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene Kansas. The only other known copy of the spherical pennant is located at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Port Canaveral.