There were several attempts and failures with Lunnik [a series of unmanned Soviet moon probes].

在Lunnik(苏联的一系列无人月球探测器)计划中有过数次尝试和失败。

youdao

At the time President Kennedy first spoke about landing humans on the moon, the Soviet space program seemed far ahead.

VOA: special.2009.07.08

A Soviet spacecraft was the first to land instruments on the moon.

VOA: special.2009.07.08

Because he was not there to assert his authority, there was not one Soviet attempt to reach the Moon, but several rival schemes to reach the Moon.

BBC: What if the Soviet Union had beaten the US to the Moon?

In 1959, the Soviet Union's Luna-2 became the first spacecraft to land on the Moon.

CNN: Monday,