Humanity Reaches Another World
1959 — Luna 2 Reaches the Moon
22:02:04 UTC
On September 13, 1959, at approximately 22:02:04 UTC,
the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 struck the Moon, becoming the first
human-made object to reach the surface of another celestial body.
Launched from the Soviet Union the previous day, Luna 2 was
placed on a direct trajectory toward the Moon. After traveling through space
for roughly a day and a half, the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface in the
region between Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, near the crater
Autolycus. NASA places the impact roughly 160 miles from the site where Apollo
15 astronauts would land twelve years later.
Luna 2 was not merely intended to demonstrate that the Moon
could be reached. The spacecraft carried scientific instruments for
investigating cosmic rays, radiation, magnetic fields, and the space
environment. Its measurements found no significant lunar magnetic field or
radiation belts comparable to Earth's. The spacecraft also carried metallic
spheres bearing Soviet emblems, which were intended to scatter upon impact.
The achievement came less than two years after Sputnik 1
inaugurated the Space Age. Sputnik demonstrated that humans could place an
artificial object into orbit around Earth. Luna 2 crossed another threshold:
something built by human hands had now traveled from Earth to another world.
Why It Matters: Luna 2 transformed reaching another
celestial body from an aspiration into an accomplished fact. Every successful
planetary landing and impact mission that followed—from the Moon and Mars to
asteroids and comets—belongs to a history whose first physical contact with
another world occurred on September 13, 1959.
Also on This Day
1850 — John Russell Hind Discovers 12 Victoria
Time unknown
On the evening of September 13, 1850, English astronomer John
Russell Hind discovered the asteroid 12 Victoria while observing at
George Bishop's Observatory in London.
Hind was comparing his observations in the constellation
Pegasus with a recently prepared star chart when he noticed an object that did
not belong among the mapped stars. He correctly recognized it as a previously
unknown member of the solar system.
Victoria was only the twelfth asteroid known to astronomy.
When the first asteroid, Ceres, had been discovered in 1801, astronomers had no
idea that the region between Mars and Jupiter contained a vast population of
small worlds. Discoveries such as Victoria gradually revealed the true nature
of what we now call the asteroid belt.
The asteroid's name produced an interesting
nineteenth-century controversy. Officially, Hind named it for Victoria, the
Roman goddess of victory, but the name also honored Britain's reigning
Queen Victoria. Some American astronomers objected because the developing
convention discouraged naming asteroids after living people, and the
alternative name Clio appeared for a time in American publications.
Hind eventually discovered ten asteroids, becoming one of
the most successful asteroid hunters of his generation.
Why It Matters: The discovery of Victoria was part of
a profound change in humanity's picture of the solar system. What had once
seemed to consist principally of the Sun, planets, and their moons was
increasingly understood to contain a much larger and more diverse population of
smaller worlds.
1985 — An F-15 Destroys a Satellite in Orbit
Time not established
On September 13, 1985, U.S. Air Force Major Wilbert D.
“Doug” Pearson climbed rapidly in a specially modified F-15A Eagle and
launched an ASM-135A anti-satellite missile toward an object hundreds of
kilometers above him.
The target was Solwind P78-1, an aging scientific
satellite that had been used to study the Sun. The missile released a miniature
kinetic-kill vehicle that homed in on the satellite and destroyed it through a
high-speed collision. The test marked the first—and ultimately only—time the
ASM-135 system destroyed an actual satellite in orbit.
The achievement demonstrated something technologically
extraordinary and strategically troubling: a weapon carried by an aircraft in
Earth's atmosphere could successfully strike an object traveling at orbital
velocity high above the planet.
The test also illustrated another danger. Destroying a
satellite at orbital velocity created a cloud of debris. Such fragments can
remain in orbit and pose collision hazards to other spacecraft, making
destructive anti-satellite testing an enduring concern in the increasingly
crowded environment around Earth.
Why It Matters: The 1985 test demonstrated that space
had become more than a realm of scientific discovery and peaceful exploration.
It had also become strategically important enough to be treated as a potential
arena of military conflict—and showed that actions in space could leave
consequences long after an individual mission ended.
The Bigger Picture
September 13 presents three remarkably different moments in
humanity's changing relationship with the universe.
In 1850, John Russell Hind stood at a telescope and
discovered another small world orbiting the Sun. Astronomy was still
fundamentally an activity conducted from Earth: humans looked outward and
gradually learned what populated the heavens.
In 1959, that relationship changed. Luna 2 did
something no telescope could do. Humanity sent a machine across the gulf
between Earth and Moon and physically touched another celestial body for the
first time.
By 1985, human activity had expanded into near-Earth
space so extensively that satellites had become important not only for science
and communication but also for national security—and nations were developing
technologies capable of destroying them.
These events reveal both the promise and the responsibility
that accompany technological progress. We discovered other worlds, learned
how to reach beyond our own, and eventually confronted the consequences of
bringing human competition into space with us.
September 13 therefore tells more than a story of
technological advancement. It reminds us that our increasing ability to reach
the universe also raises an enduring question: What will humanity choose to
do with the power to operate there?
At a Glance
1850 — Time unknown — John Russell Hind discovers
asteroid 12 Victoria at George Bishop's Observatory in London.
1959 — 22:02:04 UTC — Luna 2 impacts the Moon,
becoming the first human-made object to reach another celestial body.
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