There is one flaw with this addon. and that is Luna 3. the launch window and the trajectory arent exact to the actual mission. most of the attempts have the spacecraft too far from the Moon which I think makes a close flyby.
I may have to check again, but no, it was not a close flyby. They had to fit the whole disk in the photo frame - that can only be done from quite a distance. So, while model trajectory might not be quite exact, the essential elements - New Moon, elliptical orbit, distant flyby, plane rotation, return to the Northern Hemisphere - are all in place.
Yes, to me too. And I remember from my first impressions when I was implementing all these missions years ago... I knew the whole Russian space history quite well already, inside-out, but still had a few surprises. Knowing facts or seeing numbers is one thing but actually seeing and "feeling" things in 3D was... different. Two things back then had surprised me the most - how far behind Luna-3 had to swing to get the full hemisphere, and how severely underpowered Block E third stage was, comparing to both lower stages and to its contemporary Block I third stage!