Apollo 11 - 2 people

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man to set foot on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. The lunar landing could hardly be called a “soft landing”; Armstrong had to manually land the Lunar Module as the planned landing site turned out to be strewn with boulders. Together with Aldrin monitoring altitude and speed, as well as a nearly empty fuel tank, they landed safely on the Moon at Tranquility Base (that’s what they called their landing site on the Moon).

In total, Neil and Buzz spent 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds on the lunar surface (both inside and outside the module), and the total duration of walks on the Sea of ​​Tranquility (as they nicknamed the area in which they worked) was 2 hours, 31 minute and 40 seconds. During their lunar activity, they collected rocks, planted a US flag, installed a seismograph and a Lunar Angle Reflector - a device for measuring the distances between the Earth and the Moon using lasers directed from the Earth, which is still used today.

Apollo 12 - 2 people

The next lunar walkers were Pete Conrad and Alan Bean during the Apollo 12 mission. On November 14, 1969, the team suffered two lightning strikes during the launch of the Saturn V rocket. Powerful shocks knocked out the power and control systems, but thanks to the quick response of the Mission Control Center and Binu, everything was soon restored.

The Apollo 12 team proved its precision landing skills by landing just 185 meters from the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft. During one of their walks, Conrad and Bean, passing by the Surveyor, dismantled several of its parts for further analysis on Earth. In total, the astronauts spent two days on the Moon, November 19 and 20, 1969.

Apollo 13 - 0 people

The next lunar mission was supposed to be Apollo 13, but due to the fact that two days after the launch the oxygen tank on the spare module of the spacecraft exploded, the crew was never able to land on the Moon. What followed was a heroically harrowing and spectacular rescue operation.

Apollo 14 - 2 people

Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, who were part of the Apollo 14 mission, successfully landed on the moon. They launched on January 31, 1971 and landed on February 5 at Fra Mauro, the site originally planned for Apollo 13. Shepard and Mitchell made two exits; in the first, they conducted a series of seismic experiments to study possible earthquakes on the Moon, using a modular cart to transport equipment and samples.

During the second, they attempted to reach a crater named Cone, but with no visible landmarks in the rocky, repeating landscape, they were unable to find it. Later analysis, combining images taken by the astronauts with orbital ones, determined that the couple was only 20 meters away. During his time on the Moon, Shepard managed to open a golf club and hit a couple of balls. Mitchell joined in, throwing a moonsault like a spear.

Apollo 15 - 2 people

David Scott and James Irwin landed on the moon on July 31, 1971, as part of the Apollo 15 mission, staying for three days until August 2. Unlike previous missions, which landed on the flat lunar plains, this team landed between two mountains in an area called Hadley's Rill.

The astronauts spent about 18.5 hours outside, driving around on the first ever Lunokhod, which they brought with them. This allowed them to travel much further from the Lunar Module than previous missions. During three lunar walks, Scott and Irwin conducted several scientific experiments and collected 77 kg of lunar rock samples.

Apollo 16 - 2 people

John Young and Charles Duke were the next to land on the Moon on the Apollo 16 mission. When the ship entered lunar orbit, the mission was nearly aborted due to problems with the main engine of the control and maintenance module. However, everything worked out and, moreover, it turned out to be the first mission with a landing directly on the lunar hill. They spent 71 hours, or three days, on the lunar surface, from April 21 to April 23, 1972. During this time, they made three exits with a total duration of 20 hours and 14 minutes, and also traveled 26.7 kilometers on the lunar rover.

So how many people have walked on the moon? - 12!

Although no one has ever walked on the Moon more than once, three different astronauts have traveled to it more than once. Jim Lovell flew around the Moon on Apollo 8 and the aborted Apollo 13. John Young and Eugene Cernan orbited the Moon on Apollo 10, then Young landed with Apollo 16, and Cernan walked on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission.

Were the Russians on the Moon?

The official answer is no. The first person from the USSR to set foot on the surface of the Moon should be the pilot-cosmonaut, hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov - the man who was the first to perform a spacewalk.

In 1965-1969, Leonov was part of a group of Soviet cosmonauts preparing for the Soviet programs to fly around the Moon L1/Zond and land on it. The flight of the Zond-7 manned spacecraft under the lunar flyby program was tentatively scheduled for December 8, 1968. Leonov was part of the second crew preparing to fly around the Moon in September 1968, and be the first to set foot on its surface. But history decreed otherwise, and the American Neil Armstrong was the first to visit the moon.

After this, the space race ended because... no longer makes any sense. The next goal was Mars, but until recently neither the United States nor Russia showed much interest in flying to the Red Planet. Everything changed with the arrival of private companies, including.

Why don't they fly to the moon now?

Several years ago, dozens of innovative companies planning to return to the Moon with new technologies and ideas participated in the international competition Google Lunar X Prize. At the end of this year, a winner will be determined who will receive $20 million for the implementation and development of their project.

In the coming years, China, the United States, Russia and the European Union are preparing manned missions to the Moon.

We will talk about who and how many times traveled to the Moon, what it is like there and whether there are prospects for such “flights”. And about whether these flights took place at all...

The Moon plays a very important role in the existence of our planet; the Sun, of course, cannot be eclipsed by it, but without the Moon it is not a fact that our Earth would be alive at all.

A few words about the Moon.

Despite the debate about whether the Moon is a satellite of the Earth or an independent planet, it is now believed that it is a satellite of the Earth.

“The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. The planet's closest satellite to the Sun, since the planets closest to the Sun, Mercury and Venus, do not have satellites. The second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system. The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,467 km (0.002 57 AU, ~ 30 Earth diameters).

The Moon is the only astronomical object outside the Earth that has been visited by man.”

One of the most common versions of the origin of the Moon is that it is the fragments of the celestial body Theia and the earth’s mantle that collided with the Earth. “As a result, most of the substance of the impacted object and part of the substance of the earth’s mantle were thrown into low-Earth orbit. From these fragments, the proto-Moon assembled and began to orbit with a radius of about 60,000 km (now ~ 384 thousand km). As a result of the impact, the Earth received a sharp increase in rotation speed (one revolution in 5 hours) and a noticeable tilt of the rotation axis.”

The moon is full of craters. The main hypotheses of their origin are volcanic and meteorite. Craters are named after great scientists and celebrities.

They began to study the Moon even before our era; for example, Hipparchus studied its movement. Closer to the 20th century, earthlings took a more thorough approach to the issue of developing the mysterious Earth satellite, but flights into space were still far away. In 1902, the first science fiction film in the history of cinema, “A Trip to the Moon,” was released in France (you can watch it at the link at the bottom of the article, duration 12 minutes). People, then still at a naive level, predicted a flight to the Moon and fantasized about how it could be.

The Russians were the first to explore the expanses of the Moon with their own eyes. In 1959, the Luna stations (1-2-3) went to the Moon.

“On September 14, 1959 at 00:02:24, the Luna-2 station for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the Mare Mons region near the craters Aristyllus, Archimedes and Autolycus.”

In the same year 59, the Luna-3 station “obtained” the first photo of the far side of the Moon, flying over a surface invisible from the Earth.

Luna 24 brought soil from the lunar surface to Earth in 1976 for important research.

List of US astronauts who walked on the Moon (12 people in total)

Charles ("Pete") Conrad, Alan Bean - 1969 (Apollo 12)

Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell - 1971 (Apollo 14)

David Scott, James Irwin 1971 (Apollo 15)

John Young, Charles Duke - 1972 (Apollo 16)

Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt - 1972 (Apollo 17)

"Apollo 11"

So, in 1969, American astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong managed to set foot on the Moon, albeit in a spacesuit. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong accomplished what humanity had been preparing for for centuries, millennia, saying: “This is one small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind.”

20 minutes later, when Armstrong was already peacefully walking along the craters of the Moon, Buzz Aldrin (American aeronautical engineer, retired US Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut) joined the first person to disturb the peace of the Moon. This is the second person to walk on the moon.

These two astronauts were part of the Apollo 11 crew.

Apollo 11 (English: Apollo 11) is a manned spacecraft of the Apollo series, during the flight of which on July 16-24, 1969, the inhabitants of the Earth for the first time in history landed on the surface of another celestial body - the Moon.

Then the exit to the surface of the Moon by Armstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin lasted as much as 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds.

“On July 20, 1969, at 20:17:39 UTC, crew commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Edwin Aldrin landed the spacecraft’s lunar module in the southwestern region of the Sea of ​​Tranquility. They remained on the lunar surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds. All this time, command module pilot Michael Collins was waiting for them in lunar orbit. The astronauts made one exit to the lunar surface, which lasted 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds. The first person to set foot on the moon was Neil Armstrong. This happened on July 21, at 02:56:15 UTC. Aldrin joined him 15 minutes later.

The astronauts planted a US flag at the landing site, placed a set of scientific instruments and collected 21.55 kg of lunar soil samples, which were delivered to Earth. After the flight, crew members and lunar rock samples underwent strict quarantine, which did not reveal any lunar microorganisms.

The successful completion of the Apollo 11 flight program meant the achievement of the national goal set by US President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 - to land on the Moon before the end of the decade, and marked the victory of the United States in the lunar race with the USSR."

Many materials are devoted to the first steps of people on the Moon: “This happened at 109 hours 24 minutes 20 seconds of flight time, or at 02 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds UTC on July 21, 1969. Still holding onto the ladder with his hand, Armstrong placed his right foot on the ground, after which he reported on his first impressions. According to him, the small particles of soil were like powder that could easily be thrown up with the toe. They stuck in thin layers to the soles and sides of the moon boots, like crushed charcoal.

His feet sunk into it quite a bit, no more than 0.3 cm. But Armstrong could see his footprints on the surface. The astronaut reported that moving on the Moon is not difficult at all, in fact it is even easier than during simulations of 1/6 gravity on Earth.”

Pictured are the Apollo 11 astronauts during the moon landing.

"Apollo 12"

The Apollo 12 spacecraft, which launched on November 14, 1969 and landed on the Moon—the second human encounter with the lunar surface—returned to Earth on November 24, 1969. Charles (“Pete”) Conrad and Alan Bean are the second astronauts to visit the Moon in person.

Pictured are the Apollo 12 astronauts during the moon landing.

"Apollo 14"

The launch of the ship, whose mission was the third visit to the Moon, took place on January 31, 1971. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were the third to visit the Moon. The astronauts made two walks to the Moon, during which they collected several dozen soil samples, a total of 23 kg of samples, brought “lunar” trees, seeds that had been luggage on the Moon and were then planted in the forests of America.

Pictured are the Apollo 14 astronauts during the lunar landing.

"Apollo 15"

Apollo 15 (English: Apollo 15) is the ninth manned spacecraft in the Apollo program, the fourth landing of people on the Moon. Crew commander David Scott and lunar module pilot James Irwin spent almost three days (just under 67 hours) on the Moon.

The total duration of three exits to the lunar surface was 18 hours 30 minutes. On the Moon, the crew used a lunar vehicle for the first time, driving it a total of 27.9 km. 77 kilograms of lunar soil samples were collected and then delivered to Earth. After the flight, experts called the samples delivered by this expedition the “richest catch” of the entire program, and the Apollo 15 mission “one of the most brilliant from a scientific point of view.”

Pictured are the Apollo 15 astronauts during the lunar landing.

"Apollo 16"

The tenth manned flight of the Apollo program brought men to the Moon for the fifth time, dated April 16-27, 1972, the flight lasted just over 10 days.

“First landing in a mountainous area, on a plateau not far from the Descartes crater. This was the second J-mission, after Apollo 15, with an emphasis on scientific research. The astronauts (like the crew of the previous expedition) had at their disposal a lunar vehicle, Lunar Rover No. 2.”

Pictured are the Apollo 16 astronauts during the moon landing.

"Apollo 17"

It was the final flight of the Apollo program, the sixth and last landing of men on the Moon, the third scientific mission - December 7, 1972 - December 19, 1972.

The astronauts made three exits from the ship for a total duration of 22 hours 3 minutes 57 seconds. 110.5 kg of lunar rock samples were collected and brought to Earth.

Pictured are the Apollo 17 astronauts during the moon landing.

In just over three years, the Americans made 6 landings on the Moon, and 12 people set foot on the lunar surface.

The latest missions were particularly productive in scientific terms: soil samples were obtained, including deep samples using drilling tools, the astronauts “drove” around the Moon in a special rover, made several trips in one flight, walked, left various objects as souvenirs, perhaps for foreign nations.

However, flights to the Moon ended abruptly in 1972; since then, only artificial vehicles have touched the surface of the Earth’s satellite. Why there are no attempts to fly to the Moon now is not clear, because astronautics has reached much greater heights than in the 1970s.

Retreat. The expression mentioned earlier in quotes - “lunar race” - is an extremely important action that can be translated to a philosophical and political level.

Do you think the Earth is just a planet, with certain areas of houses, forests, where people scurry around, wanting to win a bigger piece for themselves? And the Moon is an abstract mysterious halo that illuminates our Earth at night and about flights, which you can dream about when you want something unrealistic? Everything in this world (and not only in this, and not only in this Universe is possible), including the Earth and the Moon, are objects of self-affirmation of states, and this is primarily.

So many people are permeated by base instincts - the thirst for power, greed, vanity, etc. That’s why in the race to see who will be the first to fly to the Moon, who will extract the most oil on Earth, who will build the coolest skyscraper - everyone is frantically participating, in reality only a couple of states. Two states fought in the lunar race, two special states - the USA and the USSR.

There is another side to this race - nothing comes closer to progress than competition, conflict, and the desire for self-affirmation. And it is unknown where we would be with the exploration of the Moon if it were not for the hurt pride of states. But progress in this case goes over heads... corpses... and gives an example to all of humanity on how to achieve their goals.

What did we get with access to space? Scientists will note the many scientific achievements obtained thanks to man's flight into space and to the moon, achievements that are incredibly necessary for the development of both heavenly and earthly spaces. But I think there is one very important achievement, in addition to the material one, - we have become less afraid of the unknown. After all, people have lived for centuries in oblivion about the fact that there is Space and this round plate, illuminating the night. People know not only the number of planets in our Galaxy, but also photographs of celestial bodies were taken, soil samples were taken, artificial satellites fly around the Earth, etc. The world has advanced, but what was more important to states was not the reduction of fear of the size and content of the Universe, but who would be the first to plant a flag on the Moon.

Yes, by the way, there is an opinion that the landing of people during the Apollo expeditions was falsified.

“Moon conspiracy” is a conspiracy theory, the central idea of ​​which is the assertion that during the “moon race” during the American space program “Apollo” (1969-1972), no people were landed on the moon, and photographs, filming and other documentary materials of the lunar expeditions were faked by the US government.

If there were no flights to the Moon (in the links under the article there are videos with documentaries about how we could be deceived, subtleties, details, technology), then why did America need all this? The point is clear - America wanted to be ahead by any means... And then so many material resources were allocated to the Apollo program that it was a shame to let the whole world down and not fly to the Moon. The whole masquerade was carefully thought out, played well, everyone involved signed non-disclosure documents...

If the Americans really haven’t been to the moon, then everything is ahead, and there are plenty of prospects.

Then the 1902 film A Trip to the Moon is right: going to the Moon is a great fantasy for the world. We fantasized just as we did a hundred years ago, so we do today... It’s just that the Americans played it a little more believably than the French.

We are still used to thinking that there was a man on the moon. In fact, nothing will change much for most of us if we find out the truth about whether man set foot on the moon or not. Therefore, you can believe in any truth.

What do you think, was there a man on the moon or not?

Tweets about the Chaun Marcus universe

27. How many people have been to the Moon?

Only twelve people have walked on the moon. Only nine of them are still alive. The youngest, Charles Duke ( Apollo 16), born October 3, 1935.

President John F. Kennedy announced the Apollo lunar program in his famous speech to the US Congress on May 25, 1961: "...before this decade is out..."

Apollo 8 And 10 flew to the Moon and back without landing. In 1970 Apollo 13 also had to return without landing due to an accident.

Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 And 17 landed on the moon. In each case, two astronauts reached the surface while one remained in the command module in orbit around the Moon.

July 21, 1969 landed on the moon Apollo 11. The first person to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong (age 38); 2nd - Buzz Aldrin (39 years old). They spent 2 hours and 24 minutes on the surface of the Moon.

Lunokhod (lunar buggy) covered long distances that crews had to explore Apollo 15(27.8 km), 16 (26.6 km) and 17 (35.9 km).

December 14, 1972. The last man to walk on the moon was Eugene Cernan (38 years old) on Apollo 17. Programs for Apollonov 18, 19, 20 canceled due to lack of government support.

The astronauts returned with 382 kg of lunar rock. Detailed analysis showed that the Moon probably broke away from the newborn Earth.

Three astronauts flew to the moon twice: James Lovell (Apollo 8/13), John Young (Apollo 10/16) and Eugene Cernan (Apollo 10/17) Lovell never landed.

Number of people who have flown to the Moon (with or without landing): 21. No other astronauts have ever been more than a few hundred kilometers from Earth.

From the book Black Holes and Young Universes author Hawking Stephen William

4. People's attitudes towards science5 Whether we like it or not, the world in which we live has changed a lot over the past hundred years and, it seems, will change even more in the next century. Some would like to stop these changes and return to a time that seems more

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book Lightning and Thunder author Stekolnikov I S

From the book Conversations author Dmitriev Alexey Nikolaevich

From the book Interplanetary Travel [Flights into outer space and reaching celestial bodies] author Perelman Yakov Isidorovich

From the book Tweets about the Universe by Chaun Marcus

4. Lightning strikes people and animals If lightning strikes a person or animal, then in most cases this strike is fatal. Only in cases where the damage is caused not by the main part of the lightning, but by its branch, can you escape with severe burns and

From the book The Prevalence of Life and the Uniqueness of Mind? author Mosevitsky Mark Isaakovich

From the author's book

The attraction of two people How great is this force of mutual attraction between bodies? It can be both unimaginably insignificant and monstrously powerful, depending on the size of the attracted masses and their mutual distance. Two adults separated by one fathom from

From the author's book

28. Will footprints remain on the Moon forever? No. But they will remain there for a very long time! There is no wind or rain on the Moon that could erase the traces left by the Apollo astronauts. On the other hand, it has a “rain” of cosmic micrometeorites. Micrometeorites are often

On July 20, 1969, man first set foot on another celestial body. Along with the first human flight into space, this event is one of the key ones in the entire world history. Human intelligence, will and curiosity helped usher in a new space age.

The most famous people to have walked on the Moon, of course, were those who first landed on it. They were Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. But the Apollo 11 crew members are not the only ones who visited our satellite. A total of 12 astronauts visited the lunar surface during six landings.

Apollo 11, July 20, 1969

Neil Armstrong; Edwin Aldrin

Six hours after landing on the moon, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, said his famous phrase: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” . Aldrin and Neil were on the surface of the Moon for 2.5 hours. And if Armstrong was the first person to set foot on another celestial body, then Aldrin became the first person to urinate on another celestial body. Of course, in a special tank in a spacesuit.

Apollo 12, November 19, 1969

Charles Conrad; Alan Bean

After the successful first landing of man on the Moon, a second flight soon followed. Charles Conrad walked on the Moon for 3 hours and 39 minutes, during which he collected samples of lunar soil and experimented with the solar wind. Alan Bean spent 2 hours and 58 minutes on the surface of the Moon. His task was to place a television camera on the surface in order to transmit to Earth a color picture with video footage of our satellite. However, during installation, the camera lens was pointed towards the Sun for several seconds, which caused it to malfunction, so earthlings were left to be content with photographs of the lunar surface.

Apollo 14, February 5, 1971

Alan Shepard; Edgar Mitchell

On his first day on the Moon, Shepard was outside the craft for 4 hours and 49 minutes, setting up scientific equipment and collecting rocks from the surface. On their second day on the Moon, Mitchell and Shepard traveled to the nearby Cone Crater and installed scientific instruments on the lunar surface. Their exit lasted 4 hours 35 minutes.

Apollo 15, July 31, 1971

David Scott; James Irwin

The Apollo 15 mission included being on the lunar surface for 3 days. For the first time, astronauts slept in the lunar module without spacesuits, and traveled on the surface in a specially designed lunar rover. Therefore, it is not surprising that the time spent by David Scott and James on the surface of the Earth's satellite is more than 18 and a half hours. The total distance that the astronauts traveled on the “Lunomobile” is 27.76 km, and the maximum travel speed reached 13 km/h.

James Irwin and the Lunar Rover | NASA

Apollo 16, April 20, 1972

Charles Duke; John Young

The astronauts remained outside the lunar module for a total of 20 hours and 15 minutes. This mission set a record for the mass of scientific instruments delivered to the Moon - as much as 563 kg. Charles and John were on our satellite for 3 days, and the result of their work was travel to the Stone and Smoky mountains, the Northern Ray crater and the collection of lunar soil samples.

Apollo 17, December 11, 1972

Eugene Cernan; Harrison Schmitt

Apollo 17 is the last flight to the Moon to date, during which humans were landed on the surface. The crew set two records at once: the maximum number of soil samples brought to Earth - 110.5 kg, and the longest time on the surface of the Moon - 22 hours 3 minutes.

Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon | NASA

Editor's opinion:

We often hear that the moon landing was faked by the Americans in order to force the USSR to spend huge sums on the space program and ultimately ruin it. Sometimes it seems that people who shout that the Apollo 11 mission was filmed on Hollywood soundstages simply forget or do not know about the existence of five more lunar landings, the veracity of which is beyond doubt. It is our deep conviction that such events and achievements have no political and national boundaries. We need to stop supporting stupid arguments and move together towards new discoveries and worlds that await man in deep space.

Illustration: depositphotos.com

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Jun 2, 2015

Space exploration in the middle of the last century was an extremely important matter for world powers, because it directly testified to their strength and power. The priority of developments in the space industry was not only not hidden from citizens, but, on the contrary, was emphasized in every possible way, instilling a sense of respect and pride for their country.

Despite the desire of many countries to take part in this difficult and interesting task, the main serious struggle took place between two superpowers - the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

The first victories in the space race were for the USSR

The series of successes of the Soviet cosmonautics became an open challenge to the United States, forcing America to speed up work in the field of space exploration and find a way to beat its main competitor, the USSR.

• the first artificial earth satellite - Soviet Sputnik-1 (October 4, 1957) USSR;
• the first flights of animals into space - the astronaut dog Laika, the first animal launched into Earth orbit! (1954 - November 3, 1957) USSR;
• the first manned flight into space - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961).

And yet, the competition for space continued!

First people on the moon

Today, almost everyone knows that America managed to seize the initiative in the space race by launching its astronauts on. The first manned spacecraft to successfully land on the moon back in 1969 was the American spacecraft Apollo 11, with a crew of astronauts on board: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

Many of you remember the photo of Armstrong proudly planting the US flag on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. The American government was triumphant that it had managed to overtake the Soviet space pioneers in conquering the Moon. But history is full of conjectures and assumptions, and some facts haunt critics and scientists to this day. And to this day, the question is being discussed that the American ship, in all likelihood, reached the Moon, took it, but did the astronauts actually land on its surface? There is a whole caste of skeptics and critics who do not believe in the American landing on the Moon, however, let’s leave this skepticism to their conscience.

However, the Soviet spacecraft Luna-2 reached the Moon for the first time on September 13, 1959, that is, Soviet spacecraft ended up on the Moon 10 years earlier than the landing of American cosmonauts on the Earth’s satellite. And therefore it is especially offensive that few people know about the role of Soviet designers, physicists, and cosmonauts in the exploration of the Moon.

But a huge amount of work was done, and the results were achieved much earlier than Armstrong’s victorious march. The USSR pennant was delivered to the surface of the Moon a decade before man set foot on its surface. On September 13, 1959, the Luna 2 space station reached the planet for which it was named. The world's first spacecraft to reach the Moon (the Luna-2 space station) landed on the surface of the Moon in the Mare Mons region near the craters Aristyllus, Archimedes and Autolycus.

A completely logical question arises: if the Luna-2 station reached the Earth’s satellite, then there should have been Luna-1 as well? There was, but its launch, carried out a little earlier, turned out to be not so successful and, having flown past the Moon... But even with this outcome, very significant scientific results were obtained during the flight of the Luna-1 station:

• Using ion traps and particle counters, the first direct measurements of solar wind parameters were made.
• Using an onboard magnetometer, the Earth's outer radiation belt was recorded for the first time.
• It was established that the Moon does not have a significant magnetic field.
• The Luna-1 spacecraft became the first spacecraft in the world to reach the second escape velocity.

The launch participants were awarded the Lenin Prize; the people did not know their heroes by name, but the common cause - the honor of the country - was a priority.

USA lands first people on the moon

What about the USA? Yuri Gagarin's flight into space was a serious blow for America, and in order not to remain forever in the shadow of the Russians, a goal was set - and although the Americans lost the race to land the first spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, they had a chance to be the first to land astronauts on the Earth's satellite ! Work on improving the spacecraft, spacesuits and the necessary equipment proceeded by leaps and bounds, the American government attracted all the intellectual and technical potential of the country, and, without skimping, spent billions of dollars on development. All NASA resources were mobilized and thrown into the furnace of science for a great purpose.

The step of an American citizen to the Moon is the only opportunity to emerge from the shadows, to catch up with the Soviet Union in this race. It is possible that America would not have been able to realize its ambitious plans, but at that time there was a change in the party leader in the USSR, and the leading designers - Korolev and Chelomey - could not come to a common opinion. Korolev, being an innovator by nature, was inclined to use the latest engine developments, while his colleague advocated for the old, but proven Proton. Thus, the initiative was lost and the first to officially set foot on the surface of the Moon were American astronauts.

Did the USSR give up in the lunar race?

Even though Soviet cosmonauts failed to land on the Moon in the 20th century, the USSR did not give up in the race to explore the Moon. So already in 1970, the automatic interplanetary station “Luna-17” carried on board the world’s first, unprecedented, planetary rover, capable of fully operating in conditions of a different gravity of the moon. It was called “Lunokhod-1” and was intended to study the surface, properties and composition of the soil, radioactive and x-ray radiation of the Moon. Work on it was carried out at the Khimki Machine-Building Plant named after. S.A. Lavochkin, led by Babakin Nikolai Grigorievich. The sketch was ready in 1966, and all design documentation was completed by the end of the next year.

Lunokhod 1 was delivered to the surface of the Earth's satellite in November 1970. The control center was located in Simferopol, at the Space Communications Center and included the control panel of the crew commander, the lunar rover driver, the antenna operator, the navigator, and the operational information processing room. The main problem was the signal time delay, which interfered with full control. The Lunokhod worked there for almost a year, until September 14, it was on this day that the last, successful communication session took place.

The Lunokhod did a great job of studying the planet entrusted to it, working much longer than planned. A huge number of photographs, lunar panoramas, etc. were transmitted to Earth. Years later, in 2012, the International Astronomical Union gave names to all twelve craters encountered on the path of Lunokhod 1 - they received male names.

By the way, in 1993, “Lunokhod 1” was put up for auction at Sotheby’s, the stated price was five thousand dollars. The auction ended at a much higher amount - sixty-eight and a half thousand US dollars; the buyer was the son of one of the American astronauts. It is characteristic that the precious lot rests on the territory of the Moon; in 2013 it was discovered in photographs taken by an orbital American probe.

To summarize, it can be noted that the first people to land on the Moon (1969) were the Americans, here is a list of US astronauts who landed: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin , John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt. Neil Armstrong lived a long life and died on August 25, 2012 at the age of 82, still retaining the title of the first man to set foot on the moon...

But the first spaceships that conquered the Moon (1959) were Soviet; here the primacy undoubtedly belongs to the Soviet Union and Russian designers and engineers.