Space Exploration Timeline

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Sep 13, 1959 21:02
  –  

Luna 2 impact. First spacecraft to impact another celestial body (the Moon). First delivery of national pennants to a celestial body.

Luna 2 (Russian: Луна 2), originally named the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket and nicknamed Lunik 2 in contemporaneous media, was the sixth of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon, E-1 No.7. It was the first spacecraft to touch the surface of the Moon, and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2