This is a very pretty 1959 Luna 1 pin badge celebrating the successful launch of the rocket. A gold coloured metal badge, the badge face is 1.8cm wide and has a safety clasp style fastener to the rear.
Featuring a golden finned rocket in the foreground that bore almost no resemblance to the actual launch vehicle. Such was the secrecy surrounding the mission that little was known about the true configuration of it.
Luna 1 was launched on 2 January 1959 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna 1 became the first man-made object to reach the escape velocity of the Earth. It failed to impact the moon and instead flew past at a distance of 6000km
