On 13 September 1959, it impacted the Moon's surface east of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus.

Prior to impact, two sphere-shaped pennants with USSR and the launch date engraved in Cyrillic were detonated, sending pentagonal shields in all directions.

[8] Luna missions that failed to successfully launch or achieve good results remained unnamed and were not publicly acknowledged.

[24] The primary scientific purpose of the Geiger Counter carried on Luna 2 was to determine the electron spectrum of the Van Allen radiation belt.

The US space program had had several recent setbacks including an on-pad explosion of an Atlas-Able rocket and a Jupiter missile that exploded just after launch and killed several mice it was intended to fly on a biological mission.

US President Dwight Eisenhower, while meeting with Khrushchev, remarked that there had been a few failures of American rockets lately and asked if there had been similar problems in the Soviet space programme.

Alluding to the abortive Luna 2 attempt two weeks earlier, Khrushchev replied that "We had a rocket we were going to launch, but it did not work correctly so they had to take it down and replace it with a different one.

"[citation needed] Once the vehicle reached Earth's escape velocity, the upper stage was detached, allowing the probe to travel on its path to the Moon.

that information received from Luna 1 was fake, the Russian scientists sent a telex to astronomer Bernard Lovell at Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester.

Having received the intended time of impact, and the transmission and trajectory details, it was Bernard Lovell who confirmed the mission's success to outside observers.

However, the American media were still skeptical of the data until Lovell was able to prove that the radio signal was coming from Luna 2 by showing the Doppler shift from its transmissions.

[39] To provide a display visible from Earth, on 13 September the spacecraft released a vapour cloud that expanded to a diameter of 650 kilometres (400 mi) that was seen by observatories in Alma Ata in Kazakhstan, Byurakan in Armenia, Abastumani and Tbilisi in Georgia, and Stalinabad in Tajikistan.

He played the recording during a phone call to reporters in New York to finally convince most media observers of the mission's authenticity.

[42] Luna 2 showed time variations in the electron flux and energy spectrum in the Van Allen radiation belt.

[43] Using ion traps on board, the satellite made the first direct measurement of solar wind flux from outside the Earth's magnetosphere.

A team of CIA officers gained unrestricted access to the display for 24 hours, which turned out to be a fully-operational system comparable to the original and not a replica as expected.

The team disassembled the object, photographed the parts without removing it from its crate and then put back in place, gaining intelligence regarding its design and capabilities.