The Vee of a mind
Musings and mumblings
Visuals and non-visuals
Thoughts and non-toughts
Reblogged from crookedindifference
Even rightly so, too often the Apollo program dominates the narrative of early lunar exploration. The Soviet Union ran its own lunar program in the 1960s and ’70s, and it was so successful early on that it looked like the Moon would be Soviet territory.
The first ever man-made object to land on its surface in 1959 was the Soviet-launched Luna 2. The first image of the lunar far side came during a flyby by Luna 3 the same year. In 1966, Luna 9 transmitted the first pictures from the surface of the Moon, and Luna 10 would enter into its orbit. In 1968, a handful of turtles and other simple organisms even made the first circumlunar voyage aboard Zond 5.
But Apollo 8 swept the rug out from the Soviet’s feet; three astronauts going into orbit in December of that year all but assured the world that the political victory of landing on the Moon would go to the Americans.
