Luna 1 became the first human-made object to reach heliocentric orbit and was dubbed "Artificial Planet 1"[5] and renamed Mechta (Dream).

[2] Luna 1 was designed to impact the Moon, delivering two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms that were included into its payload package.

The upper stage of the rocket contained a scintillation counter and 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of sodium for a gas-dispersion experiment.

The signal to stop firing the engine Block E stage was delayed,[12] and the prolonged burn imparted an extra 175 m/s to Luna 1.

[2][1] Luna 1 ran out of battery power on 5 January, when it was 597,000 kilometers (371,000 mi) from Earth, making it impossible to track further.

[2] At 00:57 GMT on 3 January 1959, at a distance of 113,000 kilometres (70,000 mi) from Earth,[1] 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of sodium gas was released by the spacecraft, forming a cloud behind it to serve as an artificial comet.

The cloud was released for two purposes: to allow visual tracking of the spacecraft's trajectory[16] and to observe the behavior of gas in space.

[2] This glowing orange trail of gas, visible over the Indian Ocean with the brightness of a sixth-magnitude star for a few minutes, was photographed by Mstislav Gnevyshev at the Mountain Station of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR near Kislovodsk.

The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data on the Earth's radiation belt and outer space.

[2][18] The first-ever direct observations and measurements of solar wind,[4][2] a strong flow of ionized plasma emanating from the Sun and streaming through interplanetary space, were performed.