Articles
The wedding crasher
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- Published on Friday, 17 July 2009 10:47
Twenty four hours after launch, Apollo 11 was hurtling along nicely toward the moon at a cool 24,545 mph, or roughly Mach 409 give or take a few Ernsts. That's a little slower than the 24,791 mph its predecessor Apollo 10 hit on its way back from the moon - still a record for a manned vehicle according to Guinness. But while all eyes focused on Apollo, there was a little publicized wildcard entry into the space race - Russia's Luna 15.
Resembling something created in a "Junkyard Wars" episode, the USSR launched the unmanned Luna 15 three days before Apollo 11 in hopes of upstaging the US. They planned on landing the probe on the lunar surface, collecting soil samples, and racing back to Earth before Apollo splashdown. The crew of Apollo 11 was briefed daily on the progress of Luna 15, and it was being closely followed by NASA and tracking stations in the UK. It entered lunar orbit on July 17, 1969, and was still in orbit three days later as Armstrong took his first steps. While the astronauts prepared to leave the moon on July 21st, Luna 15 finally began its descent and attempted to land -- only to end up as a smoking hole on the lunar surface.
Below is a fake video of Luna 15 orbiting above the Eagle lander and then crashing. I include it only to demonstrate the idiocy of the film makers. Since when do parachutes inflate without an atmosphere?
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfiLBcX53GM 400x300]