May 9, 2022
On this date in 1965, the unmanned Soviet lunar probe, Luna 5, was launched. This spacecraft was intended to become the first to soft-land on the moon. However, after technical difficulties, it crashed into the moon near Copernicus crater and became the second Soviet probe to hit the Moon.
A map of lunar landing sites with Luna, Apollo, and Surveyor missions. Image credit: National Space Science Data Center, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center