Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Russians attempted to land on Moon before Apollo 11


Wired online posts an article the describes the discovery of long forgotten audio tapes that document the Soviet's plans to land an unmanned craft on the moon in July of 1969 in hopes of upstaging Apollo 11 which was already in orbit at that time.

Luna 15 had been launched earlier in 1969 and was monitored by astronomers in England as it maneuvered and began it's decent only to crash into the Luna surface only hours after Apollo 11 /Eagle had already landed.

From the article:
  • Astronomers from the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics unearthed these forgotten audio files while researching materials for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The recordings come from the control room of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell and colleagues were listening to transmissions from the moon on the Lovell radio telescope.
Read complete article Wikipedia article on Luna 15

No comments: