To commemorate the launch (not landing) of the Луна 2 aka the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket on September 12, 1959, we present The Moon.

 

According to Wikipedia, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to touch the surface of the Moon, and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body. Well, Enrico Novelli went there first…

“Mars Daughter, You are fine. I am loving you and I should like very much to marry you.”

– Aldovin, Terrestrial Astronomer (Aldovin's radiotelegraph to Mars), via

…and what an adventure he had! An Earth gentleman points his telescope at the red planet, only to spot a beautiful Martian princess. He promptly falls in love and lo and behold! it's mutual! That asks for an instantaneous wedding halfway, on the Moon, and nothing can stop them!

Like in Enrico Novelli's Un matrimonio interplanetario [A Marriage in the Moon] (1910), interplanetary romance blooms in Аэлита.

Through her #telescope, Queen Aelita spots engineer Los, a handsome Earth man, and he promptly travels to #Mars to be with her. There, Los uncovers an uprising by the Elders against his beloved queen that he vows to – in good proletarian fashion – stomp down.

 

Aelita*'s constructivist stage and costume design had an enormous influence on science fiction, as far as the late 20th century.