Russians crash land on the moon
A recording just recently released, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the moon landing of Apollo 11s ‘Eagle’ has revealed that a Russian mission was under way at the same time to try and beat the Americans to the moon.
At the Jodwell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, astronomers were targeting the Apollo when they started to track another spaceship heading into the area. It was an unmanned Soviet rocket named Luna 15 and its only mission was to beat the Americans and retrieve soil and rock samples.
The recordings that were hidden away in archives until recently show that Luna 15 had orbited the moon once before attempting a landing at 15:50 on the 21st July 1969. Only a few hours before the Eagle was blasting off from the surface of the moon.
People on the recording can be heard shouting, “it’s landing, it’s landing” and then, “it’s going down much to fast,” moments before impact. Another voice afterwards can be heard to say, “I say, this has really been drama of the highest order.”
In the recordings Sir Bernard Lovell who is founder of the Jodwell Bank Observatory, can be heard talking of what was going on with the voices of the three astronauts being heard in the background.
Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information please visit their website.