Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959.
The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth and fly past another astronomical body. Soon after that the first Moon landing and the first landing on any extraterrestrial body was performed by Luna 2, which intentionally impacted the Moon on 14 September 1959. The far side of the Moon, which is always facing away from Earth due to tidal locking, was seen for the first time by Luna 3 in (7 October 1959). In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing, while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit, and in 1968 Zond 5 became the first mission to carry terrestrial lifeforms (tortoises) to close proximity of the Moon through a circumlunar approach.
The first crewed missions to the Moon were pursued by the Soviet Union and the United States, becoming the climax of the Space Race. While the Soviet Union shifted to robotic sample return missions, the American Apollo program...
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