The film was broadcast on the Soviet television up until the first American Apollo lunar landing in 1969, after which it was shelved not to be shown on TV again.
The film received Golden Seal Award of the City of Trieste (top achievement, documentaries category) at IV International Science Fiction Festival in Triesta, Italy in 1966.
As in his previous feature film Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms) Klushantsev wanted to show cooperation in space between the two superpowers but due to problems he had run into with his Planeta Bur with communist high authorities was compelled to make the first moon landing in his new film The Moon a solely Russian achievement after he was told by the communist party city headquarters: "No cooperation. We are going to the moon alone". So he put USSR (CCCP) in big letters on the spacesuits of the cosmonauts on the moon to avoid further complications.
Some of the special effects was so realistic, that Paris Match Magazine journalist when in Soviet Union in an interview with Klushantsev wanted to know the technical specifications of the six-legged lunar rover (speed, engine power, seating capacity) thinking the director had revealed some state secrets and the machine featured in the film was real enough.
To simulate moon lighting condition, a southern location of Yalta, Krimea was chosen for its strong sunlight. Moon's surface special effects were shot using a massive purpose-built black wall 12 meters tall and 40 meters high to serve as the background for the Moon's black sky. A massive vertical wall recreating the Moon surface was also built.
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