The USSR’s Luna 15 robotic spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Launched three days before the Apollo 11 crewed mission to the Moon, Luna 15 was the far less technologically advanced mission. Still, considering the many failures of the Soviet space program, its launch was still impressive. After orbiting the Moon for two days, Luna 15 attempted to de-orbit, but communication was lost, and it crashed into the surface of the Moon. If successful, it would have brought back the USSR’s first lunar soil sample.