Lighting Up the Darkside
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October 7, 2009 The Soviet Union's Luna 3 spacecraft snapped the first pictures of the far side of the Moon, which is often called the "darkside," in October 1959. The crude images showed several volcanic "seas" (the larger dark splotches) and several craters. The small spot at lower right is a crater that later was named in honor of Russian rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovski. [NASA]
