Luna 3, or
E-2A No.1 was a
Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the
Luna programme. It was the first-ever mission to photograph the
far side of the Moon. It was also the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the
Moon,. Though it returned rather poor pictures by later standards, the historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest when they were published around the world, and a tentative
Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was created after image processing improved the pictures.