Lunik

The name of the first three Moon probes launched by the Soviet Union in January, September and October 1959. Lunik 1 missed the Moon by 5,000 kilometres (3,000 miles). Lunik 2 crashed near the crater Archimedes, but Lunik 3 returned the first pictures of the lunar farside. Subsequent probes in the series were named Luna, starting with Luna 4.