Luna 9 landed before Surveyor did, too. It's funny, my Russian friend and I were playing Timelines and the moon landing came up. We couldn't agree on the date;

Luna 9 landed before Surveyor did, too. It's funny, my Russian friend and I were playing Timelines and the moon landing came up. We couldn't agree on the date; she insisted that "the moon landings" were in 1966, when the first robots landed on the moon. Apparently in Russia that's what they teach as the key milestone. And when I think about it, it's no less valid.