Luna 3 was a Soviet spacecraft and was the first ever mission to photograph the far side of the moon. October 4, 1959 at 00:43 UTC · Launch Successful Vostok-L 8K72 — Soviet Space Program, to Lunar flyby 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan The world's 50th orbital launch attempt, and 19th of 1959. Program: Luna Data: Launch Library 2, The Space Devs. Image by Roscosmos (Roscosmos Image Use Policy) via The Space Devs.