Wikipedia Wednesday: Luna 15

Everyone knows that the Americans were the first people to set foot on the moon (keep your loony conspiracy theories out of here mister ... you know who you are ... Dad).  The Apollo 11 landing was one of the most famous events in history, certainly in the 20th Century.  We know all about Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and that other dude who had to sit in the Command Module in orbit reading magazines while his buddies walked around on the surface of the goddamn moon for fuck's sake!  Man!  Can you imagine what that must have felt like?  His name is Michael Collins by the way.

Some people even know about the other Apollo missions.  Sadly the most famous ones aside from Apollo 11 are the two that went wrong.  Apollo 1 burned up on the launchpad and killed all on board, including pioneering astronaut Gus Grissom.  And, of course, thanks to a Tom Hanks movie many of us know the story of Apollo 13 as well.

A lot of people assume that the Americans were not only first on the moon, but the only people to set foot on the moon, or even get to the moon.  Until recently, I counted as one of those people, but then I read about Luna 15.

Here's the article.

The moon landing wasn't just one country working its ass off, it was, quite literally, a race to the moon.  Luna 15 was as close as the Soviets got.  They launched it only 3 days prior to Apollo 11's launch, and then ...

On July 21, 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15 - an unmanned Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched only three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the third Soviet attempt to return lunar soil back to Earth. The Russian craft crashed on the moon at 15:50 UT - just a few hours before the scheduled American lift off.

The timing was remarkable.  Armstrong and Aldrin were quite literally wandering around the moon while this thing was in the process of landing!  Actually, the word "landing" might be a bit charitable ...

Unfortunately, transmissions ceased only 4 minutes after deorbit at a calculated altitude of 3 kilometers. The spacecraft impacted the lunar surface on July 21, 1969. The spacecraft had probably crashed onto the side of a mountain. Impact coordinates were 17° north latitude and 60° east longitude in Mare Crisium.

For those who aren't up on lunar geography, Mare Crisium is hundreds of kilometers from Mare Tranquillitatis where the Apollo 11 lunar module landed.  Armstrong and Aldrin would not have seen Luna 15's descent or crash landing.

Although the two Americans on the moon's surface didn't see Luna 15 land, their bosses back on Earth were well aware of it ...

The simultaneous missions became one of the first instances of Soviet/American space cooperation as the USSR released Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11, though its exact mission was unknown.

It's a pretty short article unfortunately.  History spends a lot of time and effort congratulating the victorious.  Second place gets a brief mention, if that.

Bonus Trivia Quiz: The Apollo 11 astronauts left a silicone disc on the moon which included recordings of goodwill messages from US leaders, as well as a selection of short messages recorded by leaders from around the world.  Post in the comments section if you know which Canadian left his/her voice on the moon.  Super bonus points if you post what he/she said.