On this night in science
The first spacecraft to leave the Earth behind
January 2, 1959
On this day in 1959, a small spacecraft called Luna 1 launched and became the first ever to break free of the Earth's pull. Two days later it flew past the Moon and kept going, into a path around the sun.
Why it mattered
It became the first human-made object to circle the sun like a tiny planet, and it's still out there, going around and around.
Wonder together
If you were a tiny spacecraft going around the sun forever, what would you want to see along the way?