[6][7] Luna 1 (January 1959) missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to escape the Earth-Moon system.

A flyby is the simplest lunar spacecraft, requiring neither a propulsion device for slowing, nor a guidance system sensitive enough to hit the Moon.

Luna 3 (October 1959) rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, which can never be seen from Earth.

Soft landers require rocket propulsion to slow their speed sufficiently to prevent the craft's destruction.

It transmitted five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the lunar surface.

[14][15][16][17] More sophisticated soft lander craft can deploy wheeled vehicles to explore a wider area of the lunar surface than the immediate landing site.

[9] Lunokhod 1 travelled 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi) in 322 days and returned more than 20,000 television images and 206 high-resolution panoramas.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had already performed the first crewed lunar landing when Luna 15 began its descent, and the spacecraft crashed into a mountain minutes later.

While the programme was active, it was Soviet practice not to release any details of missions that had failed to achieve orbit.