Apollo 11 Wasn't Alone on the Moon...
Video from the channel The Space Race about Apollo 11, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 24:59. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A documentary on Soviet lunar exploration that takes as its starting point the coincidence of the Luna 15 probe with Apollo 11 in July 1969. It covers the Luna probes, the N-1 rocket and the Lunokhod rovers.
Historical context
After Sputnik in October 1957 and the American Explorer 1, the space race shifted to the Moon. The video attributes the Soviets' early lead to the R-7 rocket, the work of Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko. Luna 1, launched on 2 January 1959, passed about 5,000 km from the Moon. Luna 2 impacted the Sea of Rains in September 1959, and Luna 3 photographed the far side a month later. After several failures starting with Luna 4 in 1963, Luna 9 achieved the first soft landing in 1966, in the Ocean of Storms, and transmitted images of a smooth surface. The N-1, affected by the rift between Korolev and Glushko and by Korolev's death, failed on its first flight in February 1969.
Key facts
Luna 15 lifted off on 13 July 1969, three days before Apollo 11, aiming to bring back soil samples before the astronauts did. It stayed in orbit for several days and crashed during its descent toward the Sea of Crises while Armstrong and Aldrin were preparing to return, about 560 km from the lunar module according to the video. The first Lunokhod was lost in February 1969 due to a launcher failure. In November 1970, Lunokhod 1 landed in the Sea of Rains: operated from Moscow by five controllers, it travelled 11 km over 11 lunar days and sent back about 20,000 images. Lunokhod 2 followed in 1973, and in 1976 Luna 24 brought back 170 g of soil from the Sea of Crises in which, according to the video, the first evidence of water on the Moon was found.