The history of humans’ direct interaction with the Moon goes back to 1959, when the Soviets sent a probe from their Luna spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface and, shortly after, NASA’s Pioneer 4 made a close pass and returned data about the Moon’s radiation. Since then, astronauts have walked on the surface, people have lived in Earth orbit for months, and probes are continuing past the farthest reaches of the solar system. At this point in our space exploration, we have sent many orbiters to explore and impact the Moon, and multiple have detected its water.
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