Recording Captures Apollo 11 And Luna 15 Drama

On July 3, 2009, previously unheard recordings (audio available)  were released by The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. This find was coordinated simultaneously with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The recordings were made in the Control Room of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where Bernard Lovell and his friends were listening, in 1969. These recordings were buried in the archives for forty years, until astronomers recently found them. Fascinating!

Launched on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 would be the first manned mission to land on the moon. The men were: Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr.

On July 20th, Armstrong would utter the famous words, “Houston Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Then came another famous moment. On July 21, at 02:56 UTC, Armstrong said the following: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

But, wait a minute! The Russians were trying to steal some of the glory from the Apollo 11. They had launched their Luna 15 on July 13. The mission was to return with some moon soil samples, and hopefully beat the American’s Apollo spacecraft back to earth. The Luna 15 mission, well, until now, was not exactly a well known story.

LUNA 15 SCHEDULE
July 13, UTC 03:14 – The launch
July 13, UTC 04:24 – Final stages of launch
July 17, UTC 10:00 – Enters orbit around the moon
July 19, UTC 13:08 – Changes orbit
July 20, UTC 14:16 – Changes orbit again
July 20, UTC 15:47 – After 52 orbits, starts descent towards the moon
July 20, UTC 15:51 – Crashes at 480 kilometres per hour! This is near 17 degrees north, and 60 degrees east. The Apollo 11 crew is part of the way through its exploration.

At 17:54 UTC, Armstrong and Aldrin in the Eagle started the ascent stage, carrying with them 21.5 kilograms of lunar samples.

Just imagine the political ramifications if the Russian spacecraft Luna 15 would have accidentally crashed into one of the American spacecrafts! During the height of the cold war!