Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Soviets Made Last Ditch Effort to Beat U.S. With Moon Samples

by Kaiser Hwang on July 10, 2009 at 10:02 AM


A newly released recording reveals that the Soviet Union made a last minute attempt to beat the United States back to Earth with the first samples of the Moon's surface. The recording, made by astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, has Lovell tracking and narrating the unmanned Russian craft Luna 15's journey and eventual crash onto the Moon's surface, just hours before Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin were scheduled to head back to Earth. The Apollo 11 astronauts can also be heard on the recording, as well as others in the room, with Lovell shouting "it's landing" and "it's going down much too fast" as Luna 15 made its fatal landing.

This attempt by the Russians to steal a off-Earth victory took place during the infamous space race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s-1970s. It also took place right in the middle of yet another conflict between the two nations: the Cold War. The era was rife with fierce competition, and as the recording shows, there was no lack of effort on the Soviet Union's part to come out on top. An anonymous voice at the end of the recording sums it up best when it says, "I say, this has really been drama of the highest order." [From: Telegraph via Neatorama]

Tags: coldwar, moon, space, spacerace, top

Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular