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

by Kaiser Hwang — Jul 10th 2009 at 10:02AM

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

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

zepeda.robert said 8:56AM on 7-23-2009

Does anyone know if this was a manned, or unmanned landing attempt by the Russians? It seems to me it must have been an unmanned attempt. With all our lunar surveys and the Hubble Telescope, has there been any attempt to locate the wreckage of the Russian spaceship?

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