On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplishes the first controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft touches down on the Ocean of Storms. After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower, deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.
Lunik 9 was the third major lunar first for the Soviet space program: On September 14, 1959, Lunik 2 became the first manmade object to reach the moon when it impacted with the lunar surface, and on October 7 of the same year Lunik 3 flew around the moon and transmitted back to Earth the first images of the far side of the moon. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. space program consistently trailed the Soviet program in space firsts—a pattern that shifted dramatically with the triumph of America’s Apollo lunar program in the late 1960s.
