<P> After the unsuccessful attempt by the Luna 1 to land on the moon in 1959 , the Soviet Union performed the first hard ( unpowered ) moon landing later that same year with the Luna 2 spacecraft , a feat the U.S. duplicated in 1962 with Ranger 4 . Since then , twelve Soviet and U.S. spacecraft have used braking rockets to make soft landings and perform scientific operations on the lunar surface , between 1966 and 1976 . In 1966 the USSR accomplished the first soft landings and took the first pictures from the lunar surface during the Luna 9 and Luna 13 missions . The U.S. followed with five unmanned Surveyor soft landings . </P>
<P> After the unsuccessful attempt by the Luna 1 to land on the moon in 1959 , the Soviet Union performed the first hard ( unpowered ) moon landing later that same year with the Luna 2 spacecraft , a feat the U.S. duplicated in 1962 with Ranger 4 . Since then , twelve Soviet and U.S. spacecraft have used braking rockets to make soft landings and perform scientific operations on the lunar surface , between 1966 and 1976 . In 1966 the USSR accomplished the first soft landings and took the first pictures from the lunar surface during the Luna 9 and Luna 13 missions . The U.S. followed with five unmanned Surveyor soft landings . </P>
when did us first land on the moon
when did us first land on the moon
1962
1962