In 1959, the Soviet Luna 3 probe swung around the far side of the Moon carrying a camera loaded with film salvaged from downed American spy balloons that developed its own film onboard, scanned the negatives with a photocell, and radioed 17 grainy frames back to Earth — the first images humans had ever seen of a hemisphere no one on the planet had ever laid eyes on
How a 1959 Soviet probe, loaded with captured American spy film, photographed the far side of the Moon, developed the negatives onboard, and radioed 17 grainy frames back to Earth — filling in the last blank hemisphere on the human map.