Luna 3
E147661
Luna 3 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 that became the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Luna 3 canonical | 15 |
| Luna 3 spacecraft | 2 |
| Luna 3 imaging system | 1 |
| Luna 3 photographs of far side of the Moon | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1253182 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Luna 3 Context triple: [Luna 2, followedBy, Luna 3]
-
A.
Luna 2
Luna 2 was a Soviet space probe that became the first human-made object to reach the Moon, marking a major milestone in early space exploration.
-
B.
Luna 1
Luna 1 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 that became the first human-made object to reach the vicinity of the Moon and enter a heliocentric orbit.
-
C.
Luna 10
Luna 10 was a Soviet spacecraft that became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Moon, marking a major milestone in early lunar exploration.
-
D.
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1957 that became famous for carrying Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
-
E.
Kaguya (SELENE) lunar orbiter
Kaguya (SELENE) was a Japanese lunar orbiter mission that conducted detailed scientific mapping and observation of the Moon’s surface, gravity, and environment.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Luna 3 Target entity description: Luna 3 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 that became the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon.
-
A.
Luna 2
Luna 2 was a Soviet space probe that became the first human-made object to reach the Moon, marking a major milestone in early space exploration.
-
B.
Luna 1
Luna 1 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 that became the first human-made object to reach the vicinity of the Moon and enter a heliocentric orbit.
-
C.
Luna 10
Luna 10 was a Soviet spacecraft that became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Moon, marking a major milestone in early lunar exploration.
-
D.
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1957 that became famous for carrying Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
-
E.
Kaguya (SELENE) lunar orbiter
Kaguya (SELENE) was a Japanese lunar orbiter mission that conducted detailed scientific mapping and observation of the Moon’s surface, gravity, and environment.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Soviet space probe
ⓘ
lunar probe ⓘ spacecraft ⓘ uncrewed spacecraft ⓘ |
| apoapsisAltitude | about 460,000 km (Earth orbit) ⓘ |
| attitudeControl |
Sun and Earth sensors
ⓘ
gas jets ⓘ |
| closestApproachDistance | about 6,200 km from the Moon ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Soviet Union ⓘ |
| dataTransmissionMethod | analog television scan of developed film ⓘ |
| discovery | revealed previously unseen far side of the Moon ⓘ |
| epoch | early Space Age ⓘ |
| flybyBody | Moon ⓘ |
| followedBy | Luna 4 ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
major propaganda success for the Soviet Union during the Space Race
ⓘ
provided first global view of lunar far side ⓘ |
| imageResolution | poor to moderate quality ⓘ |
| imagingSystem |
dual-lens camera system
ⓘ
photographic film ⓘ |
| languageOfMissionControl | Russian ⓘ |
| lastContact | 1959-10-22 ⓘ |
| launchDate | 1959-10-04 ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Baikonur Cosmodrome
ⓘ
Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 ⓘ
linked to:
Baikonur Cosmodrome
|
| launchVehicle |
Luna 8K72 rocket
ⓘ
linked to:
Luna 8K72
|
| launchYear | 1959 ⓘ |
| manufacturer | OKB-1 ⓘ |
| mass | 278.5 kg ⓘ |
| missionDuration | about 16 days ⓘ |
| missionType |
lunar flyby
ⓘ
lunar imaging mission ⓘ |
| notableAchievement |
first mission to return images of the lunar far side to Earth
ⓘ
first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon ⓘ |
| numberOfImagesReturned | 17 ⓘ |
| numberOfImagesTaken | 29 ⓘ |
| operator |
Soviet Union
ⓘ
Soviet space program ⓘ |
| orbitType | highly elliptical Earth orbit ⓘ |
| periapsisAltitude | about 40,000 km (Earth orbit) ⓘ |
| powerSource |
chemical batteries
ⓘ
solar cells ⓘ |
| precededBy | Luna 2 ⓘ |
| primaryObjective | photograph the far side of the Moon ⓘ |
| program |
Luna program
ⓘ
linked to:
Luna programme
|
| spaceAgency | Soviet Academy of Sciences ⓘ |
| spacecraftBus | E-2A ⓘ |
| spacecraftStatus | inactive ⓘ |
| status | mission completed ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Luna 3 Description of subject: Luna 3 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 that became the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon.
Referenced by (19)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Gagarin crater on the Moon
linked to: Luna 3
subject linked to:
R-7 Semyorka rocket
linked to: Luna 3
linked to: Luna 3
subject linked to:
crater Mendeleev on the Moon
linked to: Luna 3