The Far-Side of the Moon

The Soviet Lunar Programme had 20 successful missions to the Moon and achieved a number of notable lunar "firsts": first probe to impact the Moon, first Fly-By and image of the Lunar Far-Side, first soft landing, first Lunar Orbiter and the first circumlunar probe to return to Earth. The two successful series of Soviet Probes were the Luna (24 Missions) and the Zond (5 Missions).

All the data gathered from the successful Missions were photographic in nature, except for the Lunar Libration data from the Luna 21 Orbiter. Lunar Fly-By Missions (Luna 3, Zond 3, 6, 7, 8) obtained photographs of the Lunar Surface, particularly the limb and Far-Side Regions. The Zond 6, 7 and 8 Missions circled the Moon and returned to Earth where they were recovered: Zond 6 and 7 in Siberia and Zond 8 in the Indian Ocean. The purpose of the photography experiments on the Lunar Landers (Luna 9, 13, 22) was to obtain closeup images of the surface of the Moon for use in lunar studies and determination of the feasibility of manned lunar landings.