Exploration of the Moon and indeed of human history in general. The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959, by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Though vague by today's standards, the photos showed that the far side of the Moon almost completely lacked maria. In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of landing a human on the Moon. Speaking to a
Albatros-class fast attack craft were long with a beam of and a draught of . They had a complement of 40. The craft were powered by four MTU 16V 956 TB91 diesels creating driving four shafts. This gave the craft a maximum speed of and a range of at . The class was armed with two OTO-Melara 76 mm guns for anti-ship and anti-air warfare. They were placed in single mounts fore and aft. The vessels were also armed with four MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles situated in two dual mounts aft but forward of the rear 76 mm gun. The class was also equipped