Luna 1 Moon Probe Launched 1959 Mug
Luna 1 (E-1 series), also known as Mechta (Russian: Dream) was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon. Luna 1 was launched 2 January 1959 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by a Luna 8K72 rocket. Luna 1 became the first ever man-made object to reach the escape velocity of the Earth (what is also known as the second cosmic velocity), when it separated from it