think that there are mountains and planes on the Moon similar to the ones
on the Earth. With the help of a hand-made telescope Galileo Galilei has
watched the Moon and in 1610 has seen mountains and “seas” (thus he
has termed the large dark areas). The non-existent seas and oceans are
mapped by their traditional names — Sea of Abundance, Sea of Rains,
Ocean of Storms, etc. which were later used as benchmarks in the space
flights to the Moon.
Beginning with Sputnik 1 launched into orbit around the Earth on
October 4th 1957, humanity entered its “space age”. In 1959 with the orbital
station Luna 1 the start for investigations of the Moon has been given and,
which was later continued by a number of Soviet stations of the Luna and
Zond series and the American ones — Pioneer, Ranger, Surveyor, etc.,
some of which accomplished a soft landing on the Moon.