Luna 9

Luna 9 was a Soviet robotic spacecraft that became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and transmit photographic data from the lunar surface back to Earth, landing on February 3, 1966. Part of the Soviet Union Luna program, it carried a television camera that returned the first close up images of the lunar surface, easing fears held by some scientists that a lander would sink into deep dust. The spacecraft success came after a string of earlier Luna program failures and helped confirm the Moon surface was solid enough to support a future crewed landing.