[Soviet View of Far Side of the Moon]

United Press International|TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union)

1959 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Although blurry and heavily retouched, this photograph, released by the Soviet wire service TASS and published around the globe, represents a groundbreaking moment in the history of lunar imagery. In October 1959 the USSR launched Luna 3, a small spacecraft equipped with a dual-lens 35 mm camera and an onboard image-processing system and scanner. The mission objective was to capture and transmit the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The images it beamed back revealed a terrain starkly different from the near side: rugged and densely cratered, with only two visible maria (respectively dubbed the Sea of Moscow and the Sea of Dreams).

Artist

United Press International|TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union)

Date

1959

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon, 2016