Earth Rise as Seen from the Dark Side of the Moon

Earth Rise as Seen from the Dark Side of the Moon

The far side of the Moon, sometimes called the “dark side of the Moon” in the sense that it is in a radio blackout in respect to transmitters on Earth, is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon in 1968. To date, there has been no ground exploration of the far side of the Moon.