Mission record
Luna 3
Also known as Lunik 3, Automatic Interplanetary Station, E-2A
U.S.S.R · Launched
Explore trajectoryCompleted · Success
The first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon, returning images that had never been seen from Earth.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 1st Generation Upper Stage
- Launch site
- Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
- Countries
- Soviet Union
- Mission types
- Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Luna 3 · Spacecraft
Destinations: Moon
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Luna 3: Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data. Bounded post-first-flyby arc; timing retains the unresolved UT/UTC hypothesis spread. · October 15, 1959 to November 3, 1959
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Luna 3 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- The Motion of the Space Probe Lunik III, Gontkovskaya and Chebotarev, Soviet Astronomy5(1),91–94 (1961) — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Lunar close encounters compete with the circumterrestrial Lidov–Kozai effect: The dynamical demise of Luna3 (2020) — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Polynomial Expressions for Delta T, Espenak and Meeus — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Space Flight Handbooks, Volume2: Lunar Flight Handbook, Part1—Background Material, NASA SP-34 (1963) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Luna3 Spacecraft and Subsystems, current NSSDCA record — NSSDCATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Krasnogorsk Plant Scientific and Technical Center: History Continues,70th Anniversary (2018),p35 — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Jodrell Bank’s role in early space tracking activities, Part1 — Sven Grahn archival history — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016: Luna 3 scientific instruments — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958–2000, NASA/SP-2002-4524 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context