Rocket launches in1966

The Soviet Union's Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon in February; the USA follows in June with Surveyor 1, and the first two Lunar Orbiters begin photographing potential Apollo landing sites — a five-mission campaign that will run through 1967. Gemini closes out in November after Gemini 11 reaches a record 1,374 km altitude and Gemini 12 logs the programme's final spacewalk, leaving Atlas-lofted reconnaissance satellites and Soviet Kosmos flights to fill the rest of the calendar.