1959 Luna Lunik 2 Soviet Moon Lunar Surface Probe Space Finned Rocket Pin Badge

The badge features the mission date 12th - 14th September 1959.

Another of my favourite space pins because of the wonderfully detailed moon surface featuring the seas and craters and an amazing finned rocket in the foreground that bore almost no resemblance to the actual launch vehicle. Such was the secrecy surrounding the missions that little was known about the true configuration of it. So the designers opted to depict a B-Movie style space rocket.

Lunik 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. On September 14, 1959, it successfully impacted east of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus.