Russian spacecraft landed on moon hours before Americans

The Russians' unmanned spacecraft, Luna 15 crash landed on the moon's surface just before Apollo 11 lifted off. An audio tape of the observations of the Jodrell's Lovell radio telescope have now been released.

There are two articles, a link to hear the recordings is in the second source.

www.teleg raph.co.uk

A previously unheard recording of a Russian spacecraft attempting to beat NASA's Apollo 11 in 1969's race to the moon has been released.

Audio available in this link:

www.independent.co.uk

A never-before-heard recording of the dramatic moment in which British boffins observed a Soviet attempt to scupper American victory in the race to the Moon has been made available to the public for the first time.

Posting for those interested



edit to add:

Here's the link to the Jodrell site audio:

www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk...

[edit on 7/4/2009 by JacKatMtn]

great thread, surprised nobody has noticed it. Now this actually helps me believe we were on the moon more than any other eidence presented thus far (believe me, I've had my doubts).

s&f for you!

my imagination is 100% into this, i can't help thinking about Dimitri, dead in his spacesuit, the helmet covered with dust, somewhere on the moon, near the crash site. He would be the greatest unknow hero of space discovery.

reply to post by eightonefive


Thanks, I was searching for any new info on the alleged moon landing tapes discovery, and this story popped up...

Another convenient 40th anniversary find? Maybe it's just a reflection of an increased awareness and focus on anything having to do with the landing..

Anyways, I thought some here might find this recent find interesting.

[edit on 7/4/2009 by JacKatMtn]

Um, it doesn't say it was a manned mission.

[edit on 7/4/2009 by Phage]

Originally posted by MattMulder


my imagination is 100% into this, i can't help thinking about Dimitri, dead in his spacesuit, the helmet covered with dust, somewhere on the moon, near the crash site. He would be the greatest unknow hero of space discovery.

Don't you think this story is interesting enough without needing to contaminate it with fiction about dead cosmonauts? The real historical impact of accounts like this from the people who were there, such as the great Sir Bernard Lovell, gets lost when people start muddying the waters by adding fictional layers to the actual historical events.

I known this is ATS, but do we really always need to de-rail these historical accounts with nothing but speculation? I realize that these "wild speculative theories" are more 'flashy' thus garner more attention, but I'm more interested in 'substance' than flash, and this historical account as told by Sir Bernard is the substance.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I tend to just ignore those....

..especially when it's obvious that the source article has not been read

The Russians tried really hard to steal the thunder away from Apollo. When it became readily apparent the US was going to get there, they did try to send a probe, scoup up some moon soil and return before the US.

An even more astounding entry occurs just before the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, scheduled for 16 July. The Soviet space program was a beehive of activity. Russia intended to launch the second N1 lunar landing super-booster with a mystery payload; and a Luna Ye-8-5 robot lander, that was to recover lunar soil and return it to earth before Apollo 11. Yet Kamanin's diary entries suddenly stop on July 7, 1969. They don't resume until August 20, 1969, when the reader is blithely informed that Kamanin has returned after a '40 day vacation' (!) www.astronautix.com...

and

By the beginning of July 1969 the launch of Apollo 11 was imminent and all of the Soviet plans made the previous December to 'answer Apollo' had come to nought. The L1 project was called off after another launch failure in January. The first attempted N1 launch in February had seen the booster ascend into the sky, but fail after a control system malfunction led to all first stage engines being shut down at 68 seconds into the flight. Attempts to land a Lunokhod robot rover in January and a Luna soil return spacecraft in June were both thwarted by Proton booster failures.

The last chance was in July. Both an N1 super booster and a Luna robot soil return spacecraft were scheduled for their second launch attempts. The official version was that the payload of the N1 was an unmanned L1S spacecraft that would orbit the moon and return photographs to earth. But according to information published as early as 1974 by former intelligence analyst Peter James, what was intended was a manned mission. The launch of the L1S into low earth orbit would be followed by a manned Soyuz. The spacecraft would dock, a crew would transfer to the L1S, and then be sent to the moon. While the crew observed from lunar orbit, the separately-launched Luna robot would land on the moon's surface and then return lunar soil to the earth.
www.astronautix.com...

[edit on 7/4/09 by FredT]

[edit on 7/4/09 by FredT]

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
Don't you think this story is interesting enough without needing to contaminate it with fiction about dead cosmonauts?

I do remember reading a very interesting article in Fortean Times (I think) about Russian cosmonauts being lost into space when their capsules bounced off the Earths atmosphere, and other mishaps.

Some brothers in Europe were recording the Russian signals - very scary to think that there might be someone somewhere just drifting through the universe, forever...

Well, this would put a big hole into the "Fake Moon" talk.

Does anyone know or have any telescopic pictures or findings that would confirm our landing on the Moon?

I know its an important fact that they put something on the moon before we did, but still people talking about a cosmonaut should re-read the OP, the first 4 words are, the Russian's UNMANNED spacecraft.

it was just one of these rovers they were sending, this one made it a few months later.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c8c48c6f9831.jpg[/atsimg]



[edit on 7/4/2009 by Alaskan Man]

Originally posted by MattMulder


my imagination is 100% into this, i can't help thinking about Dimitri, dead in his spacesuit, the helmet covered with dust, somewhere on the moon, near the crash site. He would be the greatest unknow hero of space discovery.

I have to agree with Phage

Luna 15 was not a manned flight. It was simply on a mission to return lunar soil and rock back to earth for study. So there's no dead russians lying on the moons surface

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Power_Semi

Oh, I certainly think it's possible -- if not probable -- that there have been cosmonaut deaths that the world was never told about. However, in the case of Luna 15 there were no cosmonauts.

Originally posted by Hose Monkey
Well, this would put a big hole into the "Fake Moon" talk.

Does anyone know or have any telescopic pictures or findings that would confirm our landing on the Moon?

American astronauts placed a reflector on the moon that you can shoot a laser at from Earth and have it bounced back.

The ongoing Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment measures the distance between the Earth and the Moon using laser ranging. Lasers on Earth are aimed at retroreflectors previously planted on the Moon and the time delay for the reflected light to return is determined. Since the speed of light is known with very high accuracy, the distance to the moon can be calculated. This distance has been measured with increasing accuracy for more than 35 years.

I think the correct wording would be "to my knowledge the Russian mission was not a manned flight". I mean we do not know everything, and if anyone thinks we are told everything, especially from Russia, they are beyond ignorant. Anyone heard of the Russian manned Venus mission, it reportedly left 4 Cosmonauts dead...

Originally posted by andrewh7

American astronauts placed a reflector on the moon that you can shoot a laser at from Earth and have it bounced back.

The ongoing Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment measures the distance between the Earth and the Moon using laser ranging. Lasers on Earth are aimed at retroreflectors previously planted on the Moon and the time delay for the reflected light to return is determined. Since the speed of light is known with very high accuracy, the distance to the moon can be calculated. This distance has been measured with increasing accuracy for more than 35 years.

While I believe man has been to the moon the reflectors don't really prove anything there are also Russian reflectors on the moon placed by probe.

I'm sketchy with the details but I've know I seen it in a documentry or two I might be wrong but I believe they were there before the American ones as well.

Originally posted by Phage
Um, it doesn't say it was a manned mission.

[edit on 7/4/2009 by Phage]

Indeed.

The opening post made it quite clear that the spacecraft was unmanned - did you not read it?

From OP: "The Russians' unmanned spacecraft, Luna 15...."



[edit on 5-7-2009 by Exuberant1]

reply to post by Exuberant1


I believe he was addressing this post:

Originally posted by MattMulder


my imagination is 100% into this, i can't help thinking about Dimitri, dead in his spacesuit, the helmet covered with dust, somewhere on the moon, near the crash site. He would be the greatest unknow hero of space discovery.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Mattmulder was just using his imagination and He stated that quite clearly - But Phage must not have read that part...

"my imagination is 100% into this...."
-MattMulder

Originally posted by jkrog08
I mean we do not know everything, and if anyone thinks we are told everything, especially from Russia, they are beyond ignorant.

While I'll agree that it would be easier for the former USSR to hide launches with there launch site being much more secluded than NASA's. But getting people to the Moon would require a larger rocket then what the Russian's had. The Russian N-1 rocket never did work and they denied it's existence till many years later.

Anyone heard of the Russian manned Venus mission, it reportedly left 4 Cosmonauts dead...

I have never heard of such a mission. Do you have a link or more information? You wouldn't be thinking of the manned Venus flyby that was considered by NASA in the Apollo Applications Program?

[edit on 5-7-2009 by jra]