ИСТИНА

A little more than in a year after launching of the Earth's First Artificial Satellite, the Soviet Union tested a new carrier rocket stage designed to overcome the second escape velocity of 11,2 km/s. That opened the era of flights to the Moon and planets of the Solar System. The launching of the Luna-1 space station on January 2, 1959, opened a new stage of research. The station reached the second escape velocity and passed at the distance of about 6 000 km from the Moon, and became the first artificial planet. The space era of the Moon research provided such amount of new information about the Earth's natural satellite that exceeds all known of earth-based telescopic observations scores of times qualitatively and quantitatively.