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While the US made history with NASA’s Apollo 11 mission in landing the first men on the moon, there was another story on the Soviet side of things. At the time Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would touch down on the Moon, a Soviet probe was revealed to have landed on the moon.
In the “Secret Failed Soviet Moon Landing” series by the Youtube channel DarkDocs, an unmanned Soviet probe also touched down on the lunar surface at the same time as Apollo 11 would land. As the US was set on making history by landing the first men on the Moon in 1969, the USSR was still keen on competing. They launched an unmanned Luna 15 probe to become the first vehicle to collect soil samples and return them to Earth. The launch of the Luna 15 probe was to take place three days before Apollo 11 would take off.
However, NASA raised concerns on whether the launch of the Luna 15 spacecraft could interfere with Apollo 11. Thus, the USSR gave them their assurance that there was nothing to worry about.
“The five-ton Soviet station approached the Moon on July 17 and went into near-lunar orbit. That was three days before the now-launched Apollo 11 mission would arrive. Due to miscalculations and mistakes, the unmanned Soviet spacecraft got stuck in the lunar orbit, even after Apollo 11 landed on July 20. The Soviet’s controllers were still wrestling with calculations. By the time Armstrong and Aldrin were personally collecting lunar soil, Luna 15 had orbited overhead no fewer than 52 times,” said the narrator.
Hours before Armstrong and Aldrin would return to Earth, the Luna 15 probe crashed onto the lunar surface. The remains of the probe are believed to be there until today.
NASA is already preparing for the next moon mission known as the Artemis program in 2024. The Artemis mission would be sending the next man and the first woman on the lunar surface and the agency has announced who would be the astronauts that will make the journey. 18 men and women would be making the trip, as announced by outgoing US vice president Mike Pence.
Among the astronauts joining the Artemis mission are Christina Koch and Stephanie Wilson as well as Victor Glover, who is currently at the ISS.
