©Mark Ollig
July 13, 1969, three days before the
liftoff of Apollo 11, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 15 spacecraft from
Tyuratam in the USSR.
Luna 15 obtained Earth-orbit and began
traveling towards its destination: the moon.
Newspapers around the country reported
the Soviet Union had launched a space probe, and it was heading to the moon.
They knew little else about its mission.
No information about the Luna 15 space
mission was being released by the Soviet Union.
Questions and concerns arose in our
country about what was being called Luna 15’s “mysterious mission.”
Some people felt it was a desperate
attempt to interrupt the historic moon landing mission of Apollo 11.
US astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander
of Apollo 11, discounted suggestions of Luna 15 interfering with the Apollo 11
mission to land on the moon. He said the possibilities of encountering the
Russian ship orbiting the moon were “infinitesimal.”
One day before Apollo 11’s July 16,
1969 launch from Cape Canaveral, FL, newspapers were writing about the Soviet
Union’s Luna 15.
“Soviet Officials Mum On Luna 15
Mission” was the front page headline in one New York paper, The Post-Star,
published July 15, 1969.
“Robot Riding Aboard Luna?” suggested
another headline seen in the Florida Today newspaper.
July 15, 1969, The Minneapolis Star
newspaper wrote an article, speculating Luna 15’s mission may be to “gather
[moon] samples.”
Many of the newspaper articles I found
from July 15, 1969, cited “unofficial Soviet space sources” saying Luna 15 was
equipped with a detachable robot which could perform specific tasks.
Soviet Cosmonaut Georgy T. Beregovoi
agreed with the suggestion that Luna 15 could be a “moonscooper,” meaning, the
spacecraft would land on the moon to scoop up some moon soil and then take-off
with the lunar samples safely stored inside a capsule that would land in Russia
before Apollo 11 got back to Earth with their lunar rock and soil collection.
We eventually learned Beregovoi was
correct. Luna 15 was to land on the moon, get a few scoops of lunar soil, and
then head back to Earth.
Yes, folks, the Soviet Union tried to
get the lunar scoop over the United States.
July 17, 1969, the Luna 15 spacecraft
arrived at the moon, and soon achieved lunar orbit insertion.
Apollo 11 arrived at the moon and began
its lunar orbit July 19, 1969.
July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their way from the command module, named
Columbia, into the lunar module, named Eagle, and prepared for their descent to
the surface of the moon, and their place in history.
Sunday, July 20, 1969, at 2:17 p.m.
Minnesota time, the Eagle landed on the moon.
Meanwhile, the Luna 15 spacecraft
continued its orbit around the moon.
Luna 15 was sharing the moon’s orbit
with Columbia, piloted by astronaut Michael Collins.
No encounters or radio disturbances
occurred between Columbia and Luna 15 while they shared lunar orbit.
July 21, 1969, just two hours before
Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off from the moon aboard the Eagle to rendezvous
with Columbia and head back to Earth, Luna 15 began its descent towards the
lunar surface.
During the spacecraft’s descent, it was
said, Russian space officials became alarmed by information being received from
Luna 15’s altimeter. It showed “wildly varying readings for the projected
landing area,” and that the spacecraft was flying over rocky lunar terrain.
As Luna 15 got closer to the moon, its
guidance system adjusted the spacecraft to the wrong altitude; it was also
traveling at an irregular angle above the lunar surface.
Communications abruptly stopped four
minutes after the firing of Luna 15’s engine for slowing the spacecraft’s
descent.
While flying at a speed of nearly 300
miles per hour, the spacecraft smashed into the side of a mountain, thus ending
the mission of Luna 15.
NASA’s website confirmed Luna 15’s
crash site at Mare Crisium, which is just northeast of the Apollo 11 landing
site in the Sea of Tranquility. The distance between them is about 740 miles.
A sad ending for Luna 15; however, one
of the benefits from its mission was the first genuine thawing of tensions in
the Soviet versus US space race.
US Astronaut Frank Borman, who
commanded Apollo 8’s flight around the moon in December 1968, spent nine days
in Russia on a goodwill trip during the first week of July 1969. While there,
he met with Soviet cosmonauts and the heads of the Soviet space program.
Borman established new friendships and
valuable contacts with the Russians involved in the Soviet space program.
Given NASA’s concerns about having two
spacecraft orbiting the moon at the same time, Borman was asked by the head of
NASA’s Mission Control to get in touch with his contact at the Soviet space
program.
Bormann was granted exclusive access to
the US-Soviet hotline to contact Dr. Mstislav Keldysh in Russia.
During this communication, he voiced
NASA’s apprehension regarding the possibility of the Russian and American
spacecraft’s radio transmissions interfering with one another.
Borman also expressed to Keldysh,
NASA’s concerns of an accidental crossing of orbital moon flight paths, which
would present a dangerous situation for both spacecraft.
The Russian Space Agency eased NASA’s
concerns by providing the orbital flight paths of Luna 15. They also agreed to
update NASA with any flight path changes that may occur during the mission.
After the hotline call, NASA hosted a
press conference led by Chris Kraft, the head of Mission Control.
He assured the press, Apollo 11 and
Luna 15 would not interfere with, or come close to each other during their
respective missions.
The crew of Apollo 11 returned to Earth
July 24, 1969, bringing with them 47 pounds of moon rocks and lunar soil.
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| Apollo 11 landing site on the left, and Luna 15 impact site on the right |
