A dual Venus-Halley's Comet mission launched in 1984 that dropped a lander and balloon on Venus before continuing on to make the first-ever close observations of a comet's nucleus in March 1986.

The second crewed mission to land on the Moon, launched on November 14, 1969, successfully landed astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean near Surveyor 3 in Oceanus Procellarum for a 31.5-hour lunar surface stay.

The first spacecraft to intentionally impact another celestial body, Luna 2 struck the Moon's surface near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters on September 14, 1959, delivering Soviet pennants to the lunar surface.