From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1959 in spaceflight

none

Field	Value
year	1959
caption	Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon in September
first	2 January
last	26 November
total	23
success	10
failed	11
partial	2
catalogued	14
maidens	Thor-Agena
Atlas-Able
Atlas D (suborbital test)
retired	Vanguard

Atlas-Able Atlas D (suborbital test)

Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to leave the gravitational influence of Earth. Also in 1959, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another celestial body, impacting the Moon, and Luna 3 returned the first images of the far side of the Moon.

Overview

Orbital and suborbital launches

Main article: 1959 in spaceflight (January–June), 1959 in spaceflight (July–December)

Deep Space Rendezvous

Date (GMT)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
4 January	Luna 1	First Lunar flyby	Failed impactor, closest approach: 6000 km
4 March	Pioneer 4	Lunar flyby	Closest approach: 60200 km
14 September	Luna 2	First Lunar impact	Landed in Mare Imbrium, first spacecraft to reach the surface of a celestial body
6 October	Luna 3	Lunar flyby	First Circumlunar flight, returned 29 pictures including first images of the far side of the Moon; closest approach 6200 km

Orbital launch statistics

By country

| [ {"value":190, "color":"#484785", "label": "United States:19 (82.61%)"}, {"value":40, "color":"#a52a2a", "label": "Soviet Union: 4 (17.39%) "}, ]

Country	Launches	Successes	Failures
failures			style="text-align:left;"	style="text-align:left;"	World
4	2	1	1
19	9	9	1

By rocket

Rocket	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Atlas-Able	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
Juno II	4	1	2	1
Luna 8K72	4	2	1	1
Thor DM-18 Agena-A	8	5	3	0	Maiden flight
Thor DM-18 Able-II	1	0	1	0
Thor DM-18 Able-III	1	1	0	0
Vanguard	4	2	2	0	Final flight

By orbit

Orbital regime	Launches	Successes	Failures	Accidentally
Achieved	Remarks
Low Earth	12	7	5	0
Medium Earth	4	1	3	0
High Earth	2	2	0	0	Including Highly elliptical orbits
Heliocentric	5	3	2	0

References

Footnotes

References

"Orbital Launches of 1959".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1959-in-spaceflight spaceflight-by-year

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1959 in spaceflight — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report