To the 40th anniversary of the flight of the American spacecraft "Apollo 11"

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" (Thatisonesmallstepforaman,onegiantleapformankind) - these words were said by Neil Armstrong when he was the first human to set foot on the moon. This epoch-making event took place 40 years ago, on July 20, 1969.

1. Twice two questions

Over the decades, many legends and speculations have developed around the topic of man's visit to the moon. The most famous and sensational of them - that the American astronauts did not land on the lunar surface, and all the television reports about the landing and the Apollo program itself were a grandiose hoax. Some witches even transformed Armstrong's phrase about the "giant leap of humanity" into "a giant trick of humanity." "Irrefutable argumentation" in favor of the fact that people were not on the moon, has already been devoted to an extensive literature and dozens, if not hundreds of films shot in different countries and in different languages.

Almost simultaneously with this, at the end of the 1980s, in the (then) USSR, information about the presence in the 1960s-1970s was made public. Soviet program of manned flights to the moon. It became known that in the USSR it was also planned to first fly around the moon by cosmonauts, and then land on the surface of our natural satellite.

However, the leadership of the USSR, like the United States, by the way, saw only a political sense in the landing on the moon.

After the Apollo 11 flight, it became clear that Soviet Union hopelessly lagged behind the United States in the implementation of the lunar program. According to the leaders of the CPSU, the flight of Soviet cosmonauts to the moon under such conditions would no longer have had the desired effect in the rest of the world. Therefore, the Soviet lunar program was frozen at a stage already close to a manned flight, and it was officially announced that the USSR had never had such a program. That the USSR moved in an alternative way and paid the main attention not to political prestige, but to scientific research of the Moon with the help of automatic devices, in which our astronautics, indeed, achieved great success. This is the most popular explanation for why Soviet cosmonauts never replicated the achievements of their American counterparts.

So, in the historiography (so to speak) of the lunar problem, two differently resolved issues now dominate:

1. Have the Americans landed on the moon?

2. Why was the Soviet lunar program not completed?

If you look closely, then both questions are interconnected, and the very statement of the second is, as it were, an answer to the first. Indeed, if the Soviet lunar program really existed and was already close to implementation, why cannot it be assumed that the Americans were able to actually implement their Apollo program?

Another question arising from this. If Soviet space specialists had even the slightest doubts about the authenticity of the fact of the American landing on the moon, would the Soviet leadership, proceeding precisely from the political goals of the lunar program, not have brought it to the end only in order to convict the Americans of a universal lie and inflict the most fatal blow to the international prestige of the United States, while simultaneously raising the prestige of the USSR to an unprecedented height?

Although these two questions already contain the answer to the very first one, let's figure it out in order. Let's start with the official version of the history of the Apollo program.

2. How the German genius lifted the Yankees into space

The successes of American rocketry are associated primarily with the name of the famous German designer Baron Werner von Braun, the creator of the first V-2 (V-2) ballistic missiles. At the end of the war, Brown, along with other German experts in the field of advanced military technology, was exported to the United States.

However, the Americans did not trust Brown for a long time to conduct serious research. Working in the arsenal of Huntsville (Alabama) on short-range missiles, Brown continued to design promising launch vehicles (LV) capable of developing space velocity. But the contract for the creation of such a rocket and satellite was awarded to the US Navy.

In July 1955, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly promised that his country would launch the first artificial Earth satellite (AES) as soon as possible. However, it was easier said than done. If our genius Sergei Pavlovich Korolev quickly created fundamentally new missile systems, then the Americans did not have home-grown masters of this level.

Several unsuccessful attempts by the Navy to launch its invariably exploding missile at the start prompted the Pentagon to look more favorably on the former SS Sturmbannführer, who became a US citizen in 1955.

In 1956, Wernher von Braun received a contract for the development of the Jupiter-S intercontinental ICBM and a satellite.

In 1957, the news of the successful launch of the Soviet satellite sounded like a bolt from the blue for the Americans. It became clear that the United States lagged significantly behind the USSR in penetrating space. After another failure of the Navy with the launch of its own launch vehicle, the main work on the creation of promising launch vehicles and satellites was concentrated in the hands of Brown. This area of \u200b\u200bactivity has been removed from the Pentagon. A special structure was created for her in 1958 - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the US federal government.

Brown became head of the John Marshall Space Center, which was converted in 1960 to NASA's Space Flight Center. Under his leadership, 2 thousand employees (then more) worked, concentrated in 30 departments. All department heads were originally German - former employees of Brown's V-2 program. On February 1, 1958, the first successful launch of the Jupiter-S LV and the launch of the first American satellite Explorer-1 into orbit took place. But the crown of Wernher von Braun's life was his Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo program.

3. On the way to the moon

The year 1961 was marked by a new triumph for Soviet science and technology. On April 12, Yuri Gagarin made the first flight in the Vostok spacecraft (SC). In an effort to create the appearance of covering the gap with the USSR, on May 5, 1961, the Americans launched the Redstone-3 LV from the Mercury spacecraft along a ballistic trajectory. The first officially considered such American astronaut Alan Bartlet Shepard (who later traveled to the Moon) stayed in space for only 15 minutes and made a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean just 300 miles from the launch site at Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft never reached its space velocity. The next quarter-hour suborbital flight of the "Mercury" (astronaut Virgil I. Grissom) took place on July 21, 1961.

As if in a mockery on August 6-7, the second full-fledged orbital flight of the Soviet spacecraft took place. Cosmonaut German Titov spent 25 hours 18 minutes in space on Vostok-2, making 17 revolutions around the Earth during this time. The first normal orbital flight for the Americans only happened on February 20, 1962 (astronaut John H. Glenn) thanks to the new, more powerful Atlas launch vehicle. The spacecraft "Mercury" made only 3 revolutions around the Earth, having spent less than five hours in orbit.

In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy proclaimed a kind of "national project" designed to put an end to the US lagging behind the USSR in space and overcome the American inferiority complex.

He promised that the Americans would land on the moon before the Russians, and this would happen before the end of the 1960s. From now on, any programs of manned space flights in the United States (the next was the Gemini project) were subordinated to one goal - the preparation of the landing on the moon. So the Apollo project was launched. True, Kennedy did not live to see its implementation.

Landing on the moon required the solution of two very complex technical problems. The first is maneuvering, undocking and docking of spacecraft modules in near-earth and lunar orbits. The second is the creation of a sufficiently powerful launch vehicle capable of imparting a second cosmic velocity (11.2 km / s) to a payload consisting of a two-module SC, three astronauts and life support systems (LSS).

During the flights of the Gemini spacecraft around the Earth, it has already been outlined that the USA lagged behind the USSR in solving complex problems for spacecraft and humans in space. Gemini 3 (crew by V.I. Grissom and John W. Young) on \u200b\u200bMarch 23, 1965, made the first maneuver in space using manual control. In June 1965, astronaut Edward H. White left Gemini 4 and spent 21 minutes in open space (three months earlier our Alexei Leonov - 10 minutes). In August 1965, the Gemini 5 crew (L. Gordon Cooper and Charles Konrad) set a new world record for the duration of an orbital flight - 191 hours. For comparison: at that time the Soviet record for the duration of an orbital flight, set in 1963 by the pilot of Vostok-5, Valery Bykovsky, was 119 hours.

And in December 1965 the crew of Gemini 7 (Frank Borman and James A. Lovell) completed 206 orbits in low-earth orbit in 330 and a half hours! During this flight, a rendezvous with Gemini-6A (Walter M. Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford) was carried out at a distance of less than two meters (!), And in this position both spacecraft made several revolutions around the Earth. Finally, in March 1966, the Gemini 8 crew (Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott) made the first in-orbit docking with the Agena unmanned module.

The first Apollo spacecraft were unmanned. The elements of a flight to the moon were worked out on them in an automatic mode. The first test of the new powerful launch vehicle Saturn-5 was carried out in November 1967 in the unit with the Apollo-4 spacecraft. The third stage of the launch vehicle gave the module a speed of about 11 km / s and put it into an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 18 thousand km, after which the spacecraft burned out in the atmosphere. On Apollo 5 in February 1968, various modes of operation of the lunar module were simulated in unmanned mode on the satellite orbit.

Saturn-5 is still the most powerful launch vehicle in history.

The launch weight of the launch vehicle was 3000 tons, of which 2000 tons was the weight of the first stage fuel. Second stage weight - 500 tons. Two stages launched the third with a two-module spacecraft into the satellite orbit. The third stage gave the spacecraft, consisting of an orbital compartment with a propulsion engine and a lunar cockpit, divided into a landing and takeoff stage, a second space speed. Saturn-5 was capable of launching a payload weighing up to 150 tons (including the weight of the third stage with full tanks) into low-earth orbit, and 50 tons on a flight path to the Moon. At the cosmodrome, this entire structure rose to a height of 110 m.

The first manned flight under the Apollo program took place in October 1968. Apollo 7 (Walter M. Schirra - the first human to fly into space three times, Donn F. Eisele, R. Walter Cunningham) made 163 orbits around the Earth for 260 hours, which exceeded the calculated flight to the Moon and back. On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, for whom this was the third space flight, and William A. Anders) embarked on the first ever manned flight to the Moon. Actually, at first it was planned to work out all the elements of the flight to the Moon in the satellite orbit, but the lunar descent vehicle (lunar cabin) was not yet ready. Therefore, it was decided to first fly around the Moon in an orbital module. Apollo 8 made 10 revolutions around the Moon.

According to some reports, it was this flight that became decisive in freezing the USSR leadership of its own lunar program: it became obvious now that we were lagging behind the Americans.

The Apollo 9 crew (James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, Russell L. Schweickart) in March 1969 performed all maneuvers in low-Earth orbit related to the undocking and docking of modules, the transfer of astronauts from one compartment to another through a sealed joint without going into space. And Apollo 10 (Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young - for both it was the third flight into space, Eugene A. Cernan) in May 1969, performed the same thing, but in a circumlunar orbit! The orbital (command) compartment made 31 revolutions around the Moon. The lunar cabin, having undocked, performed two independent revolutions around the Moon, descending to an altitude of 15 km above the satellite's surface! In general, all stages of the flight to the Moon were completed, except, in fact, landing on it.

4. The first people on the moon

Apollo 11 (spacecraft commander - Neil Alden Armstrong, lunar module pilot - Edwin Eugene Aldrin, orbiter pilot - Michael Collins; for all three it was the second flight into space) took off from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969. After checking onboard systems, during one and a half orbits in the near-earth orbit, the third stage was switched on and the spacecraft entered the flight path to the Moon. This path took about three days.

The Apollo design required one major maneuver during flight. The orbital module, docked with the lunar cockpit with its tail section, where the main engine was located, was undocked, made a 180-degree turn and docked to the lunar cabin with its bow. After that, the spent third stage was separated from the spacecraft rebuilt in this way. The other six flights to the Moon followed the same scheme.

When approaching the Moon, the astronauts turned on the main engine of the orbital (command) module for braking and transfer to a circumlunar orbit. Then Armstrong and Aldrin moved to the lunar module, which was soon undocked from the orbital compartment and entered an independent orbit of an artificial lunar satellite, choosing a place for landing. On July 20, 1969 at 15 hours 17 minutes Eastern US time (23-17 Moscow time), the Apollo 11 lunar cabin made a soft landing on the Moon in the southwestern part of the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility.

Six and a half hours later, after putting on spacesuits and depressurizing the lunar compartment, Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the lunar surface. It was then that he said his famous phrase.

Live television broadcasts from the lunar surface were conducted to hundreds of countries around the world. It was watched by 600 million people (of the then population of the planet of 3.5 billion) in six parts of the world, including Antarctica, as well as the socialist countries of Eastern Europe.

The USSR ignored this event.

“The lunar surface at the moment of landing was brightly lit and resembled a desert on a sultry day. Since the sky is black, one could imagine that one was on a sports field covered with sand at night, under the beams of searchlights. No stars or planets, with the exception of the Earth, could be seen, ”Armstrong described his impressions. He said roughly the same to the camera and shortly after reaching the surface: “Like a high-mountainous desert in the United States. Inimitable beauty! " "Magnificent loneliness!" - echoed Aldrin, joining Armstrong after 20 minutes.

“The soil on the surface is soft and free-flowing, - said Armstrong of his impressions, - I easily kick up the dust with the toe of my shoe. I sink only one eighth of an inch into the ground, but I see my footprints. " “The grayish-brown soil of the Moon,” wrote the November (1969) issue of the magazine America, published in the USSR, “turned out to be slippery, it stuck to the soles of astronauts. When Aldrin inserted a pole into the ground, it seemed to him that the pole was entering something damp. " Subsequently, these "earthly" comparisons began to be used by skeptics to confirm the idea that the astronauts were not on the moon.

Returning to the lunar cabin, the astronauts pumped up oxygen, took off their spacesuits and, after resting, began to prepare for takeoff. The spent landing stage was undocked, and now the lunar module consisted of one take-off stage. The total time spent by astronauts on the moon was 21 hours 37 minutes, of which the astronauts stayed outside the lunar cabin only a little more than two hours.

In orbit, the lunar compartment joined the main one, piloted by Michael Collins. He was destined for the most unenviable, but also the safest role in the lunar expedition - to circle in orbit, waiting for his colleagues. Moving into the orbital compartment, the astronauts battened down the passageway and undocked what was left of the lunar cabin. Now the Apollo 11 spacecraft was one main unit, which headed for Earth. The way back was shorter than the way to the Moon and was only two and a half days - it is easier and faster to fall to the Earth than to fly away from it.

The second landing on the moon took place on November 19, 1969. The Apollo 12 crew members Charles Peter Konrad (the third flight into space; he made four of them in total) and Alan Laverne Bean stayed on the lunar surface for 31 hours and a half, of which 7.5 hours outside the spacecraft in two exits. In addition to the installation of scientific instruments, the astronauts dismantled a number of instruments for delivery to Earth from the American automatic spacecraft (AKA) Surveyor-3, which landed on the lunar surface in 1967.

The Apollo 13 flight in April 1970 was unsuccessful. During the flight, a serious accident occurred, there was a threat of failure of the LSS. Having forcibly canceled the landing on the moon, the Apollo 13 crew flew around our natural satellite and returned to Earth in the same elliptical orbit. The commander of the ship, James Arthur Lovell, became the first person to fly to the moon twice (although he was never destined to visit its surface).

This seems to be the only flight to the moon that Hollywood has responded to with a feature film. Successful flights did not attract his attention.

The nearly disaster with Apollo 13 made it necessary to pay increased attention to the reliability of all spacecraft onboard systems. The next flight on the lunar program took place only in 1971.

On February 5, 1971, veteran American astronaut Alan Bartlet Shepard and newcomer Edgar Dean Mitchell landed in the Fra Mauro crater. They came out on the lunar surface twice (each time - more than four hours), and the total time spent by the Apollo 14 module on the Moon was 33 hours and 24 minutes.

On July 30, 1971, the Apollo 15 module landed on the lunar surface with David Randolph Scott (third flight into space) and James Benson Irwin. Astronauts for the first time used a mechanical vehicle on the moon - the "lunar car" - a platform with an electric motor with a power of only 0.25 horsepower... The astronauts made three excursions with a total duration of 18 hours 35 minutes and traveled 27 kilometers on the Moon. The total time spent on the moon was 66 hours 55 minutes. Before launching from the Moon, the astronauts left a television camera on its surface, which worked in automatic mode. She broadcast the moment of the takeoff of the lunar cabin on the screens of the terrestrial television.

The "Lunar Car" was used by the participants of the next two expeditions. On April 21, 1972, Apollo 16 commander John Watts Young and lunar module pilot Charles Moss Duke landed in the Descartes crater. For Young, this was the second flight to the Moon, but the first landing on it (in total, Young made six flights into space). KK spent almost three days on the moon. During this time, there were three excursions with a total duration of 20 hours 14 minutes.

Eugene Andrew Cernan (for whom, as for Young, this was the second flight to the Moon and the first landing on it) and Harrison Hagan Schmitt were the last people to visit the Moon on December 11-14, 1972. The Apollo 17 crew set a number of records: they stayed on the Moon for 75 hours, of which 22 hours outside the spacecraft, traveled 36 km on the surface of a night star and brought 110 kg of lunar rock samples to Earth.

By this time, the total cost of the Apollo program had exceeded $ 25 billion ($ 135 billion in 2005 prices), prompting NASA to curtail its further implementation. The scheduled flights on Apollo 18, 19 and 20 were canceled. Of the three remaining Saturn-5 launch vehicles, one in 1973 put the only American space station Skylab into orbit, the other two became museum exhibits.

The abolition of the Apollo program and the cancellation of some other ambitious projects (in particular, a manned flight to Mars) were a disappointment for Wernher von Braun, who became NASA's deputy director of space flight planning in 1970, and may have precipitated his death. Brown resigned from NASA in 1972 and died five years later.

Initially stimulating the start of the US and Soviet lunar programs, the Cold War then directed the development of space technologies into a narrow channel of the arms race.

The Space Shuttle reusable spacecraft program has become a priority for the United States, and long-term orbital stations for the USSR. The world seemed to be heading irrepressibly towards "star wars" in near-earth space. The era of space romance and the conquest of space was receding into the past ...

5. Where do the doubts come from?

After several years, doubts began to be expressed: was it true that the Americans landed on the moon? Nowadays, there is already a fairly large layer of literature and a rich film library, proving that the Apollo program was a grandiose hoax. However, there are two points of view among skeptics. According to one, in the framework of the Apollo program, no space flights were carried out at all. The astronauts remained on Earth all the time, and the "lunar footage" was filmed in a special secret laboratory created by NASA specialists somewhere in the desert. More moderate skeptics acknowledge the possibility of the Americans carrying out real flights of the moon, but the moments of landing themselves are considered fake and cinematic editing.

The adherents of this sensational hypothesis have developed a detailed argument. The strongest argument, in their opinion, is that the lunar surface does not look as (again, in their minds) it should look in the footage of the astronauts landing on the Moon. So, they believe that the stars should be visible in the pictures, since there is no atmosphere on the moon. Attention is also paid to the fact that in some photographs, allegedly, the position of the shadows indicates a very close, within a few meters, the location of the light source. An overly close and, as it were, cut off the horizon line is also noted.

The next group of arguments is related to the "wrong" behavior of material bodies. So, the US flag set by the astronauts fluttered as if under gusts of wind, while there was a vacuum on the moon. Pay attention to the strange movement of astronauts in spacesuits. They argue that under the conditions of gravity six times less than Earth's, astronauts had to move in huge (almost ten meters) jumps. And they assure that the strange gait of the astronauts just imitated the "jumping" movement on the Moon under the conditions of gravity with the help of ... spring mechanisms in spacesuits.

It is suggested that almost all the astronauts who, according to the official version, flew to the Moon, subsequently refused to talk about their flights, to give interviews, and write memoirs. Many went crazy, died a mysterious death, etc. For skeptics, this is proof that the astronauts experienced a terrible stress associated with the need to hide some terrible secret.

It is curious that for ufologists the strange behavior of many astronauts of the "lunar squad" serves to prove something completely different, namely, that on the moon they allegedly came into contact with an extraterrestrial civilization!

Finally, the last group of arguments is based on the thesis that the technologies of the late 1960s and early 1970s did not allow three people to make a manned flight to the moon and return to Earth. They point to the insufficient power of the then launch vehicles, and most importantly (an irresistible argument in our time!) - the imperfection of computers! And here the skeptics contradict themselves. Thus, they are forced to admit that in those days there were no opportunities for computer-graphic imitation of the lunar expedition course!

The advocates of the authenticity of manned landings on the moon have an equally developed system of counterarguments. In addition to pointing out the internal contradictions of the skeptical theory, as well as the fact that its arguments can be used to prove several mutually exclusive points of view at once, which logically is considered an automatic refutation of all of them, they provide a physical explanation for the noted "oddities."

The first is the lunar sky, where no stars are visible. Try looking up at a clear sky at night under the bright light of a street lamp. Will you see at least one star? But they are there: it is worth moving into the shadow of the lantern - the stars will show through. Looking at the lunar world in the brightest (in a vacuum!) Sun light through powerful light filters, both astronauts and the "eye" of television cameras, naturally, could record only the brightest objects - the lunar surface, the lunar cabin and people in spacesuits.

The Moon is almost four times smaller than the Earth, therefore the curvature of the surface there is greater, and the horizon line is closer than we are used to. The proximity effect is enhanced by the lack of air - objects on the lunar horizon are also visible as clearly as those near the observer.

The vibrations of the foil flag took place, of course, not under the influence of the wind, but according to the principle of a pendulum - the pole was forcefully stuck into the lunar soil. Later he received more impulses for oscillations from the steps of the astronauts. The seismograph installed by them immediately caught the shaking of the ground caused by the movement of people. These vibrations, like any others, had a wave nature and were accordingly transmitted to the flag.

When we see astronauts in space suits on TV screens, we are always amazed at their awkwardness in such a bulky design. And on the moon, despite six times less gravity, they would not be able to fly with all their desire, which for some reason was expected of them. They tried to move by jumping, but then they found that the earth step (in spacesuits) is acceptable on the moon. On the screens, Armstrong easily lifted a heavy (on Earth) toolbox and said with childish delight: "This is where you can throw anything far!" However, skeptics claim that the scene was simulated, and that the box from which the astronauts later took out scientific equipment was at that moment ... empty.

A hoax would have to be too grandiose and many years old, and more than one thousand scientists would have to be devoted to the secret!

It is unlikely that even a totalitarian state is capable of exercising such strict control over such a mass of people and preventing information leakage. The Apollo 11 crew members installed a laser reflector on the Moon, which was then used for laser ranging from Earth and determining the exact distance to the Moon. Was the location session also fabricated? Or were the reflector and other devices that transmitted signals to Earth before the 1980s all set by automatic machines?

Astronauts of all six expeditions that landed (according to the official version) on the moon brought to Earth a total of 380 kg of samples of lunar rocks and lunar dust (for comparison: Soviet and American AKA - only 330 grams, which proves much higher efficiency of manned flights on compared with AKA for research of celestial bodies). Were they all collected on Earth, and then passed off as lunar ones? Even those, whose age is 4.6 billion years, which has no recognized analogues on Earth? However, skeptics say (in part they are right) that there are no reliable methods for accurately determining the age of such ancient breeds. And all these centners of lunar soil were allegedly brought to Earth by automatic machines. Then why is their weight three orders of magnitude higher than that brought by all other AKA combined? And if they are terrestrial, then why is their composition identical to the lunar soil delivered by machines to the Earth or analyzed by our "Lunokhod" on the Moon itself?

Attention is also drawn to the fact that skeptics concentrate their efforts mainly on refuting the authenticity of the first manned landing on the moon. Whereas in order to confirm their theory, they need to refute separately the authenticity of each of the six officially occurring landings. What they don't.

As for the imperfection of the technologies of that time, the “murderousness” of this argument reflects the inferiority of the consciousness of modern civilized mankind, which has put itself in a fatal dependence on computers.

Just at the turn of the 1960-1970s. civilization began to abruptly change the paradigm of its development. The attitude towards conquering space was replaced by the attitude towards the production and use of information, moreover, for utilitarian, consumer purposes. This caused a surge in the development of computer technology, but at the same time put an end to the external expansion of mankind. Along the way, in those same years, the general attitude towards scientific progress began to change - from enthusiastic it at first became restrained, and then negative began to prevail. This change in public sentiment was well reflected (and perhaps, to a certain extent, formed) by Hollywood cinema, one of whose textbook images was a scientist whose experiments and discoveries are becoming a terrible threat to the safety of people.

It is difficult for most modern people brought up in the categories of linear progress to imagine that even 40-50 years ago our civilization was in some respects higher (I would even say - higher) than now, more idealistic. Including in the field of technologies associated with penetration into extraterrestrial space. This was facilitated by the competition of alternative socio-economic systems. Romance and heroism of struggle and expansion have not yet been completely killed by the virus of smug all-consuming consumerism.

Therefore, all references to the impossibility for the Americans to build a lunar spacecraft in the 1960s are simply untenable. In those years, the United States really overtook the USSR in many areas of space research. So, another triumph of the overseas power was the Voyager program. In 1977, two spacecraft of this series were launched to the distant planets of the solar system. The first flew close to Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, the second explored all four giant planets. Thousands of stunning photographs were transmitted to Earth, which went around the pages of all popular science publications. The result was sensational scientific discoveries, in particular, dozens of new satellites of the outer planets, the rings of Jupiter and Neptune, etc. Is this also a hoax ?! By the way, communication with both AKA, which are now at a distance of 90 astronomical units (14.85 billion km) from the Earth and are already exploring interstellar space, is still maintained.

So there is no reason to deny the ability of civilization in the second half of the last century, including in the United States, to make a series of manned flights to the moon. Moreover, a similar program was carried out in the USSR.

Its presence and the degree of its development serve as the most important proof of the authenticity of the event that took place 40 years ago.

6. Why did our astronauts never visit the Moon?

One of the answers to the question posed is that the Soviet leadership, unlike the American, did not concentrate its main efforts in this area. The development of cosmonautics in the USSR after the successful launches of satellites and the first manned flights became "multi-vector". The functions of satellite systems were expanded, spacecraft for near-earth flights were improved, and spacecraft were launched to Venus and Mars. It seemed that the first successes in themselves created a fairly solid and long-lasting groundwork for the USSR's leadership in this area.

The second reason is that our specialists were unable to solve many technical problems that arose during the implementation of the lunar program. Thus, Soviet designers were unable to create an operating sufficiently powerful launch vehicle - an analogue of Saturn-5. The prototype of such a rocket is the RN N-1 (on the picture) - Comprehended a number of disasters. After that, work on it, in connection with the already completed flights of the Americans to the Moon, were curtailed.

The third reason was that, paradoxically, but it was in the USSR, in contrast to the United States, that there was real competition between the variants of lunar programs between the United Design Bureau (OKB). The political leadership of the USSR was faced with the need to choose a priority project, and due to its scientific and technical incompetence, it could not always make a good choice. Parallel support of two or more programs led to a dissipation of human and financial resources.

In other words, in the USSR, unlike the United States, the lunar program was not uniform.

It consisted of various, often multifunctional projects that never merged into one. The programs for flying around the Moon, landing on the Moon and creating a heavy launch vehicle were implemented in many ways separately.

Finally, the leadership of the USSR viewed the landing of a man on the moon exclusively in a political context. For some reason, the lag behind the United States in the implementation of a manned flight to the moon was assessed by him as the worst admission of defeat, rather than an "excuse" that the USSR did not have a lunar program at all. Few believed in the latter even then, and the absence of hints of attempts to at least repeat the achievement of the Americans was perceived both in our society and around the world as a sign of a hopeless lag behind the United States in the field of space technologies.

The LK-1 project ("Lunar ship-1"), which provided for a flyby of the Moon with one cosmonaut on board the spacecraft, was signed by the head of OKB-52 Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey on August 3, 1964. It was guided by the UR500K LV, which was being developed at the same OKB (the prototype of the subsequent Proton LV, which was first successfully tested on July 16, 1965). But in December 1965, the Politburo decided to concentrate all practical work on the lunar program in Sergey Korolev's OKB-1. Two projects were presented there.

The L-1 project provided for a flight around the moon by a crew of two. Another (L-3), signed by Korolev back in December 1964, is a flight to the Moon of a crew of two people, with one astronaut landing on the surface of the Moon. Initially, the term for its implementation was appointed by Korolev for 1967-1968.

In 1966, the Chief Designer dies unexpectedly during an unsuccessful operation. Vasily Pavlovich Mishin becomes the head of OKB-1. The history of the leadership and scientific and technical support of Soviet cosmonautics, the role of individuals in this is a special topic, its analysis would take us too far.

The first successful launch of the Proton-L-1 complex was carried out from Baikonur on March 10, 1967. A mock-up of the module, which received the official designation "Cosmos-146", was launched into the satellite orbit. By this time, the Americans had conducted the first test of Apollo in automatic mode for almost a year.

On March 2, 1968, the prototype L-1 under the official name "Zond-4" flew around the moon, but the descent into the earth's atmosphere was unsuccessful. The next two launch attempts were unsuccessful due to malfunctions in the LV engines. Only on September 15, 1968, the L-1 under the name "Zond-5" was launched into the flight path to the Moon. However, the descent took place in an unplanned area. On its return in November 1968, Zond-6 also failed the descent systems in the atmosphere. Recall that already in October 1968, the Americans switched from automatic to manned flights under the Apollo program. And in December of the same year, Apollo 8 made the first triumphant flyby of the Moon.

In January 1969, the RN became mocked at the start again. It was only in August 1969 that a successful unmanned flight of Zonda-7 took place, returning to Earth in a given area. By this time, the Americans had already visited the moon ...

In October 1970, the Zonda-8 flight took place. Almost all technical problems have been resolved. The next two vehicles in this series were already prepared for manned flights, but ... the program was ordered to be curtailed.

The L-3 project, intended for landing on the moon, had significant differences from the American one. The flight concept was the same. However, more powerful engine LK did not require the separation of the cockpit into landing and takeoff stages. Another difference was that the astronaut's transition between the LOC and the LK was to be carried out through open space. This was due to the fact that by that time, the domestic cosmonautics had not yet solved the technical problems associated with the hermetically sealed docking of the two spacecraft. The first successful experience of this kind was made by ours only in 1971 when the Soyuz-11 spacecraft was launched to the Salyut-1 orbital station. And the Americans already in March 1969 on Apollo 9 performed the first ever hermetic docking and undocking and transfer from one space module to another without going into outer space. The need to create an airlock in the Soviet LOC and the presence of a pilot in a spacesuit there sharply limited the useful volume and payload of the entire lunar complex. Therefore, only two people were planned for the expedition, and not three, like the Americans.

Tests of individual elements of a flight to the moon were initially carried out within the framework of the Soyuz and Cosmos projects. On September 30, 1967, the first in-orbit docking of the Kosmos-186 and -187 unmanned aerial vehicles was performed. In January 1969, Vladimir Shatalov on Soyuz-4, Boris Volynov, Alexey Eliseev and Yevgeny Khrunov on Soyuz-5 made the first docking of manned vehicles and the transition from one to another through open space. The practice of undocking, deceleration, acceleration and docking of the LK in low-earth orbit continued after the decision to cancel the manned flight, in the early 1970s.

The main obstacle on the way of the lunar project was the difficulties with the creation of the N-1 LV.

Her preliminary design was signed by Korolev back in 1962, and on the sketch the Chief Designer made a note: "We dreamed about it back in 1956-57." With the creation of a heavy launch vehicle, hopes were associated with the implementation of not only a flight to the moon, but also long-distance interplanetary flights.

The design of the RN N-1 was a five-stage (!) With an initial weight of 2750 tons. According to the project, the first three stages were supposed to bring a cargo with a total weight of 96 tons onto the flight path to the Moon, which, in addition to the lunar ship, included two stages for maneuvering near the Moon, descending to its surface, lifting from it and flying to Earth. The weight of the lunar ship itself, which consisted of an orbital compartment and a lunar cabin, did not exceed 16 tons.

The N-1 rocket, the first test of which took place in January 1969 (after the first flyby of the Moon by the Americans), from the beginning to the end was pursued by fatal failures caused by engine malfunction. Not a single H-1 launch was successful. After the disaster at the fourth launch in November 1972, further work on the N-1 was stopped, although the causes of the accidents were identified and were completely subject to elimination.

Back in 1966, Chelomey proposed an alternative project for the lunar expedition, based on the creation of the UR700 launch vehicle (further, never completed development of the UR500, that is, Proton). The flight scheme for this program resembled the original project of the Americans (which they later abandoned). It provided for a single-module lunar ship, without division into orbital and take-off and landing sections, with two astronauts on board. However, OKB-52 gave the go-ahead only for the theoretical development of this project.

If it were not for the hasty political decision of the Soviet leadership, it can be argued that, despite all the technical problems, our cosmonauts could quite realistically have carried out the first flyby of the Moon in 1970-1971, and the first landing on the Moon in 1973-1974 ...

But at this time, after the successful flights of the Americans, the leaders of the CPSU cooled to the lunar program. This indicates a dramatic change in their mentality. Is it possible to imagine that if the United States had managed to get ahead of us in developing the first satellite or launching the first cosmonaut, the Soviet space program would have been curtailed at the initial stage? Of course not! In the late 50s - early 60s. that would be impossible!

But in the 70s, the leaders of the CPSU had other priorities. The need to pay special attention to the military component served only as a pretext for curtailing the lunar program (especially since the beginning of the 70s is characterized by a relaxation of international tension). From now on, the prestige of Soviet cosmonautics was based only on constantly updated flight duration records. In 1974, as a result of corporate intrigues, Mishin was dismissed from his post as head of OKB-1. In his place came Valentin Glushko, who not only stopped all work on the N-1, even theoretical ones, but also ordered the destruction of copies of this launch vehicle ready for testing.

It is quite appropriate to supplement the question in the heading of this section with another: why have our cosmonauts not been to Mars? More precisely, near Mars.

The fact is that the N-1 project was calculated as multipurpose. This launch vehicle (which was planned only as the first in the family of heavy carriers) was developed in the future not only for a lunar ship, but also for a "heavy interplanetary ship" (TMK). This project provided for the launch of the spacecraft into a heliocentric orbit, which made it possible to fly several thousand kilometers from Mars and return to Earth.

The LSS testing of such a ship was carried out on Earth. Volunteer testers Manovtsev, Ulybyshev and Bozhko in 1967-1968. spent a whole year in a sealed chamber with an autonomous LSS. Similar experiments of much shorter duration began in the United States only in 1970. In the future, the many months stay of a number of Soviet crews on the "Salyut" formed suspicions that the leadership of the USSR was preparing to implement the "Martian program". Alas, these were only speculations. Such a program did not exist in reality. Work on TMK was terminated simultaneously with work on N-1.

In principle, a manned flight around Mars with a return to Earth would be quite realistic for the USSR already in the early - mid-1980s.

Of course, provided that all the elements of the lunar program, suitable for use in a flight to Mars, continued to develop and work on them did not stop in the 70s. The moral effect of such a flight would be comparable to the American landing on the moon, if not more. Alas, the later Soviet leadership once again missed a historic chance for a great country ...

7. Is there a future for lunar expeditions?

This requires, first of all, a radical change in the mentality of modern civilization. Despite the promises of the leaders of the United States or the leaders of our cosmonautics that appear from time to time to organize a manned flight to Mars, it is clear that they are no longer perceived by society with such enthusiasm as the promises of the first flights to space and to the Moon 40-50 years ago. George W. Bush announced the task of returning Americans to the moon by 2020 and a subsequent flight to Mars. By that time, several presidents will have already been replaced, and from Bush, in case of non-fulfillment of his "plans", as they say, bribes will be smooth.

In our time, space exploration and the conquest of world spaces have decisively shifted from priorities to the periphery of public interest in literally all countries of the world.

This can be clearly seen from the share of messages of this kind in the total media stream. If in Soviet times, almost every citizen of the USSR knew if there were our cosmonauts in orbit and who exactly, now only a small minority knows for sure whether the cosmonauts are currently on board the International Space Station. However, most probably don't even know what it is.

Meanwhile, the effectiveness of manned flights for scientific research has been proven by the same Apollo expeditions. During their three days on the Moon, the two astronauts managed to accomplish the amount of scientific work, orders of magnitude exceeding those that both our lunar rovers spent in 15 months! The Apollo program was important for scientific and technological progress. Many of her developments were then used in a variety of projects. Testing the latest equipment under conditions of long-distance space flights is a completely unique opportunity, fraught with a sharp leap forward in all scientific and technical fields. The multi-billion dollar Apollo program ultimately paid off and made a profit thanks to the introduction of new technologies.

However, despite the projects of long-term habitable stations on the Moon appearing from time to time, the governments of the leading powers of the world, either individually or together, are in no hurry to fork out for such programs. It's not just about tight-fistedness, but also about lack of ambition. Extraterrestrial spaces have ceased to excite and attract people. Humanity clearly needs additional incentives to activate the cosmic vector of its development.

Especially for the Century

Space has always been that space that beckons with its proximity and inaccessibility. People are researchers by nature, and curiosity is the progress of civilization both in technical terms and in the expansion of self-awareness. The first manned landing on the moon reinforced the belief that we are capable of interplanetary flights.

Earth satellite

The Russian name of the space body "Moon" in translation from the Proto-Slavic means "light". It is a natural satellite of our planet and its closest celestial body. The ability to reflect sunlight onto the earth's surface makes the moon the second brightest object in the sky. There are two opinions about the origin: the first says about the simultaneous emergence with the Earth, the second says that the satellite was formed in another place, but was subsequently captured by the Earth's gravity.

The existence of a satellite provokes the appearance of special effects on our planet. For example, by the force of its gravity, the Moon can control water spaces. Due to its size, it takes on a part of meteorite attacks, which to some extent protects the Earth.

Initial research

The first manned landing on the moon is the result of American curiosity and the country's intention to overtake the USSR in the topical issue of space exploration. For many millennia, mankind has watched this celestial body. The invention of the telescope by Galileo in 1609 made the visual method of studying a satellite more progressive and accurate. Since then, more than one hundred years have passed until people decided to send the first unmanned vehicle to a space body. And one of the first here was Russia. On September 13, 1959, a robotic spacecraft, named after a satellite, landed on the lunar surface.

The year of the first manned landing on the moon is 1969. Exactly 10 years later, American astronauts have opened new horizons for the development of civilization. Thanks to more detailed research, interesting Facts birth and structure of the satellite. This, in turn, made it possible to change the hypothesis of the origin of the Earth itself.

American expedition

The Apollo 11 spacecraft began its flight on July 16. The crew consisted of three astronauts. The purpose of the expedition was the first landing of a man on the moon. The ship flew to the satellite for four days. And already on July 20, the module landed on the territory of the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility. In the southwestern part of the region, the group stayed for a certain time interval: more than 20 hours. The very presence of people on the surface lasted 2 hours and 31 minutes. On July 24, the crew returned to Earth, where they were kept in quarantine for several days: no lunar microorganisms were found in the astronauts.

• Survey conducted in 1976 by the statistical inhabitants of America.
• A video of the astronauts' training actions on the ground base, which has a fantastic similarity to the video filmed on the satellite.
• Modern analysis of the image using a photo editor, where inaccurate shadow episodes are revealed.
• Some scientists themselves were the first to express the idea that tissue cannot develop in lunar gravity due to the absence of wind.
• There are no stars in the photographs "from the moon".
• Edwin Aldrin refused to swear on the Bible that he came to the surface of a heavenly body.

The supporters of the landing found natural explanations for all the charges. For example, that retouching was used on photographs to improve the quality for publication, and the ripples on the flag are not from the wind, but from the actions of the astronaut who sets the flag. The original record has not survived, which means that the fact of the first step along the Earth's satellite will remain a controversial point.

Russia had its own unpleasant incident in the year of the first humans landing on the moon. The government of the USSR did not consider it necessary to inform the inhabitants of the country about the American event. Although the Russian ambassador was invited, he did not show up for the Apollo 11 launch. He named his business trip on important government affairs as the reason.

On July 20, 1969 at 20 hours 17 minutes CET, the lunar module of the American Apollo 11 spacecraft with two astronauts on board made a soft landing on the lunar surface near a crater in the southwestern part of the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility.

The Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched on July 16, 1969 at 13 hours 32 minutes CET. Ship crew - commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins, lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin.

On July 19, approximately 76 hours after launch, the spacecraft reached lunar orbit. It was delivered there using a super-powerful Saturn-V launch vehicle (length - 111 meters, launch weight - 3,100 tons), developed under the guidance of a rocket designer Wernher von Braun (1912−1977).

On July 20, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the lunar module, activated and tested all of its systems, and brought the folded landing stage supports into working position. After that, Apollo 11 was given the go-ahead for undocking the command-service and lunar modules. At the beginning of the 13th orbit, when Apollo 11 was over reverse side Moons, Columbia and Eagle undocked.

According to the flight plan, at the end of the 13th orbit over the far side of the Moon, the engine of the lunar module landing stage was turned on for 29.8 seconds, the Eagle entered the descent orbit with an apoliation of 105.9 km and a perilove of 15.7 km.

At 102 hours 33 minutes 05 seconds of flight time, near the perilune of the descent orbit, the engine of the landing stage of the lunar module was turned on, and the braking stage began.

Eight and a half minutes after the start of deceleration, at an altitude of slightly less than 2 km, the stage of approaching the landing point began, the on-board computer proceeded to execute a program, according to which the engine of the landing stage and the engines of the attitude control system is automatically controlled, and the astronauts can only manually correct orientation.

The Eagle began to slowly turn into an upright position. At an altitude of 1.5 km with a descent rate of 30.5 m / s, Armstrong turned off the automatic mode for a while to make a test orientation correction, everything worked fine.

At an altitude of about 460 m, Armstrong saw that the autopilot was guiding the ship to a point on the near edge of a large crater. The pilot quickly realized that landing the Eagle in enough safe placewithout reaching the crater will fail. He decided to fly over it. At an altitude of about 140 meters, the commander switched the computer to semi-automatic mode.

At a height of about 9 meters "Eagle" for some unknown reason began to move to the left and back. It was possible to cope with the movement back, but it was not possible to completely extinguish the movement to the left. It was impossible to slow down the descent or hover even more, since there was very little fuel left.

Relying on the fact that in conditions of weak lunar gravity, the supports of the landing stage would have to withstand the impact of falling from such a height, Armstrong decided to land the ship immediately. This decision was facilitated by a message from the MCC in Houston - they warned that there were 30 seconds of flight left to the critical fuel level.

"Eagle" began the last vertical descent and after 9 seconds Aldrin literally yelled: "Contact signal!" This happened at 20:17:39 UTC on July 20 (102 hours 45 minutes 39.9 of flight time).

A blue contact signal meant that at least one of the 1.73 m long probes touched the lunar surface, which were attached to three of the four supports (except for the one where the ladder was). After 1.5 seconds after that, Armstrong turned off the engine. The first landing on the moon in the history of mankind has taken place.

July 16, 1969 at 13:32 UTC (UTC) a spacecraft was launched from launch pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center (Florida, USA) Apollo 11... The mission was to land a man on the moon.

July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC (at 5 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds Moscow time, or at 6 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds modern Moscow summer time) the Apollo 11 astronauts made their way to the lunar surface. The first person to set foot on the moon was the ship's commander Neil Armstrong... 15 minutes later, he was joined by a lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin... Command module pilot Michael Collins all this time waiting for them in a lunar orbit.

Returned "Apollo 11" to Earth July 24, 1969 at 16:50:35 UTC. The whole expedition continued8 days 3 hours 18 minutes and 18 seconds.

During the flight, the astronauts spent several tV broadcasts.

The successful completion of the Apollo 11 flight program meant the achievement national goal, delivered by US President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 - before the end of the decade, land a person on the moon and return him safely to Earth - and marked the victory of the United States in the lunar race with the USSR.

The landing of a man on the moon is often referred to as one of the greatest achievements of humanity.

Apollo 11 Crew:
commander - Neil (Neil) Alden Armstrong (Neil Alden Armstrong) (left),
command module pilot - Michael Collins (Michael Collins) (center),
lunar module pilot - Edwin E. Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. (Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr.) (right).

Spaceship "Apollo"

3-bed ship mass about 47 tons,which includes the following components:

• command module,
• service module,
• lunar module,
• emergency rescue system.

All Apollo modules

1. Docking pin. 2.Heat protective cover, put on the crew compartment at launch. 3. Pressurized cabin of astronauts. 4.Flexible skirt of the heat-protective cover on the crew compartment. 5. Pitch orientation motors. 6. Roll orientation motors. 7. Panel for mounting a block of four auxiliary motors. 8. Tanks with fuel for the main engine. 9. Caliper and flow meter. 10.Master engine nozzle. 11.Rear bottom heat shield. 12.S-band directional antenna. 13.Radiator of the thermal control system. 14 Tanks with liquid oxygen and hydrogen. 15. Block of auxiliary engines. 16. Yaw orientation motors.

Command and service modules the Apollo 11 spacecraft (they got the name and callsign "Colombia" )

Command module - this is spherical cone, base diameter 3920 mm, cone height 3430 mm, apex angle 60 °, nominal mass -5500 kg... The command module isflight control center... All crew members are in it during the flight, except for the stage of landing on the moon.

Service module carries the main propulsion system and support systems of the ship. Has the shapecylinder 3943 mm long and 3914 mm in diameter... Taking into account the length of the propulsion engine nozzle that protrudes out of the housing, the total length of the service module7916 mm... General service module weight - 23.3 tons, including 17.7 tons of fuel. The module houses a cruise propulsion system, a jet control system, fuel tanks and propulsion units and a power plant based on hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells. The service module provided all the maneuvers of the spacecraft on the flight trajectory to the Moon, trajectory correction, entering the Moon's orbit, transferring from the Moon's orbit to the flight trajectory to Earth, and correcting the return trajectory.

For landing on the moon, to the main (command and service) modules was added another lunar module :

Apollo 11 lunar module (he got his name and callsign - "Eagle" )

The lunar module has height 6.37 m, diameter 4.27 m. and weight about 16.2 tons... Consists of landing and takeoff steps.

Landing stage weighing about 11.7 tonsequipped with an independent propulsion system thrust up to 4.76 ton-forces and landing gear, is used to lower the lunar ship from the orbit of the moon and soft landing on the lunar surface, and also serves as a launch pad for the takeoff stage.

Takeoff stage weighing about 4.5 tons with pressurized cockpit for crew and independent propulsion system with a thrust of 1.59 ton-forces, after completing the research, it starts from the surface of the Moon and in orbit docks with the command compartment. The separation of the steps is carried out using pyrotechnic devices.

Comparison of the Apollo spacecraft with a docked lunar module (top) with other spacecraft used by NASA to prepare for a flight to the Moon: 2-seater Gemini (below right) and 1-seater Mercury (very bottom right) ). On the left are the launch vehicles for these ships and the placement of the ships on them.

To launch the Apollo spacecraft, super-heavy launch vehicle Saturn-V (Saturn-5) having height 110 m, diameter 10.1 m. and launch weight of about 2925 tons, of which about 2700 tons (i.e. more than 90%) are fuel. She could put a load weighing about 145 tons, and on the trajectory to the Moon - 65.5 tons (46.8 tons - Apollo ship and 18.7 tons - 3rd stage with fuel residues).

The Saturn-5 launch vehicle remains the most payload, most powerful, heaviest, and largest rocket ever created by mankind to deliver payload into orbit.This is the brainchild of an outstanding designer of rocket technologyWernher von Braun:

Scheme of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle

As can be seen in the diagrams, the Saturn-5 launch vehicle consisted of three steps.

At the first stage (S-IC) 5 oxygen-kerosene engines F-1, with a total thrust of more 34,000 kN (i.e., more than 3400 ton-forces, 690 ton-forces for each engine). These engines remain to this day the most powerful single chamber rocket engines ever flown... The first stage worked 2.5 minutes and accelerated the spacecraft to speed 2.68 km / s (in the inertial frame of reference) and brought it to a height 68 kilometers.

Second stage (S-II) used 5 oxygen-hydrogen engines J-2, the total thrust of which was 5115 kN (523 ton-force, 104 ton-force for each engine). The second stage worked approximately 6 minutesaccelerating the spacecraft to speed 6.84 km / s and bringing it to altitude 185 km.

At the third stage (S-IVB) was installed 1 oxygen-hydrogen engine J-2 thrust 1000 kN (102 ton-force). The third stage was switched on twice, after the separation of the second stage it worked 2.5 minutes and put the ship into near-earth orbit. Soon after entering this orbit, the third stage was switched on again and after 6 minutes put the ship on a flight path to the moon. The third stage was brought to the trajectory of the collision with the Moon (starting with the flight of Apollo 13); in previous flights to the moon, the stage entered a near-solar orbit.

In addition to Saturn-5, the Apollo test launches used the Saturn-1B "- a two-stage launch vehicle, an upgraded version of the Saturn-1 launch vehicle.

At the first stage « Saturn-1B (SI-B) 8 oxygen-kerosene engines H-1, the total thrust of which was 6700 kN (i.e., 684 ton-force, 137 ton-forces for each engine). Step worked 2.5 minutes and turned off at altitude 68 kilometers.

Second stage "Saturn-1B" (S-IVB), she is the third stage of "Saturn-5", worked about 7 minutes and output the payload up to 15.3 tons into near-earth orbit.

Comparison of launch vehicles "Saturn-1", "Saturn-1B" and "Saturn-5"

Chronicle of the flight "Apollo 11"

Launch of the Saturn-5 carrier rocket with the Apollo 11 spacecraft on July 16, 1969

Start of second stage engines Saturn-5 after separation of the first stage

The engines of all three stages of the launch vehicle worked in accordance with the design program, the ship was launched into a geocentric orbit close to the calculated... After that, the crew for about 2 hours checked the onboard systems.

The engine of the third stage of the launch vehicle was re-enabled in 2 hours 44 minutes 16 seconds flight time and worked 348 secondsgiving the ship speed 10.8392 km / s and translating it to free return trajectory:

In the event of failure of the main engine of the spacecraft, this trajectory ensured its return to Earth after 145 hours 04 minutes. flight along it, including a sufficiently distant flyby of the moon.

After entering the trajectory to the moon, at 3 hours 15 minutes 23 seconds of flight time has begun maneuver for rebuilding Apollo's compartmentswhich ended on the first try after 8 minutes 40 seconds:

Maneuver for rebuilding the Apollo compartments (this scheme refers to Apollo 10, but Apollo 11 was rebuilt in the same way)

When " Colombia"And" Eagle»Moved to a safe distance from the 3rd stage of the launch vehicle, on command from the Earth, the engine of the 3rd stage was turned on for the last time, and it switched to the flight path past the moon and going to heliocentric orbit.

And along this trajectory:

Scheme flight Apollo -eleven"

Scheme flight of the previous ship - Apollo -ten"

Astronauts put the ship into passive thermal control mode when it slowly rotated around its longitudinal axismaking about 3 revolutions in 1 hour. This ensured uniform heating of the ship's skin..

At 25 hours 00 minutes 53 seconds of flight time Apollo 11 covered exactly half the distance from the Earth to the Moon, flying 193,256 km. Soon thereafter, by turn on the main engine for 2.9 seconds Was held intermediate trajectory correction, as a result of which the ship switched to a trajectory that provides a rendezvous with the Moon and landing on it.

Shortly before the crew was supposed to begin another period of night rest, Armstrong unexpectedly contacted Houston and asked: how far from Apollo 11 was the dropped third stage of the launch vehicle at that moment? The fact was that the astronauts through the windows saw at a great distance some kind of incomprehensible object that blinked like a flashing beacon. It looked like it was tumbling in space, reflecting sunlight. It was observed by all three astronauts as the ship was slowly spinning in passive thermal control at the time. Houston told them a few minutes later that the third stage was flying from them at a distance of 11,100 km. From this it became clear that the mysterious object could in no way be the third step. As Aldrin recounted in a post-flight survey, in a monocular, the shape of the object looked like the letter L. Armstrong added that it all resembled an open suitcase. Collins said that it was a hollow cylinder, and if the focus of the sextant was slightly knocked off, then the object looked like an open book. What it really was, it was not possible to establish for certain. Presumably, the astronauts could see one of the adapter panels in which the lunar module was at the top of the third stage during takeoff.

July 19 at 75 hours 49 minutes 28 seconds of flight time (4 minutes earlier than the estimated time) when the ship was behind the Moon, the LPRE of the service compartment was switched on; he worked 357 seconds and transferred the ship to an elliptical orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon with an altitude of 313.8 km. and in perilune 112.7 km... In this orbit, the spacecraft made 2 revolutions around the Moon and 80 hours 04 minutes. 51 sec. flight time (4 minutes 39 seconds earlier than the estimated time), the LPRE of the service compartment was switched on again for 16.4 seconds, as a result of which the ship entered an orbit close to a circular one, with an altitude of 121.5 km in aposet and 99.4 km in perilune... This orbit is very close to the nominal orbit of 120x100 km, which, under the influence of the anomalies of the gravitational field of the Moon, should have passed into circular orbit with an altitude of 111 km.

July 20 Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin went into the lunar module, activated and tested all its systems, brought the folded landing stage supports into working position. At the beginning of the 13th orbit, when Apollo 11 was over the far side of the Moon, "Columbia" and "Eagle" undocked.

Lunar module "Eagle" in orbit around the Moon after undocking with the command module "Columbia"

At the end of the 13th orbit, over the far side of the Moon, the engine of the lunar module landing stage was turned on for 29.8 seconds, "Oryol" entered the descent orbit with a settlement of 105.9 km and a perilove of 15.7 km.

Descent of the lunar ship from the orbit of an artificial satellite to the lunar surface

It flew with the landing stage legs forward and the portholes downward so that astronauts could track landmarks on the surface. Armstrong noticed that one of the landmarks maskelini crater W, they flew about 3 seconds earlier than expected... This meant that they would land beyond the calculated point.

At 102 hours 33 minutes 05 seconds of flight time near the perilune of the descent orbit (about 400 km east of the planned landing area) was the engine of the lunar module landing stage is switched on, the braking stage has begun... Approximately 4 minutes after that, the Eagle was tilted 180 °, portholes up, Armstrong and Aldrin saw the Earth almost straight ahead. Such a turn was necessary for two reasons: so that the landing radar could capture the surface and so that at the final stage of landing, when the ship turns to a vertical position, the astronauts could see the area where they are landing.

Almost immediately after that the on-board computer alarm was triggered, what Armstrong reported to the MCC. The lunar module was at that moment at an altitude of 10.2 km ... The alarm was triggered congestion of the on-board computer, which, in addition to navigation data, received information that was unnecessary at that moment from the radar of the meeting with the command-service module (the radar switch was put in this position by Armstrong about 3 minutes before the first alarm signal). In total, during the landing, the alarm went off 5 times, which greatly distracted the attention of the astronauts. The decisive factor in the MCC's decision to continue the landing was the word of Steve Bales, a specialist in navigation systems of the lunar module, who considered that the overload of the computer would not jeopardize the landing (later he, together with the astronauts, would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom).

Braking the lunar module before landing on the moon .

A similar maneuver of the Apollo 10 lunar module - without landing. After that, the lunar module landing stage was separated, and its takeoff section, along with Stafford and Cernan, again docked to the ship's command module, which was waiting for them in orbit under Young's control, and all three astronauts returned to Earth.

After 8.5 minutes after the start of braking, at an altitude of just under 2 km., the stage of approaching the landing point has begun, the on-board computer proceeded to execute the program, according to which the engine of the landing stage and the engines of the attitude control system are controlled automatically, and the astronauts can only manually correct the attitude. The Eagle began to slowly turn into an upright position.

At an altitude of 1.5 km. at a speed of descent of 30.5 m / s, Armstrong turned off the automatic mode for a while to make a trial orientation correction.

At an altitude of about 460 m. Armstrong saw that the autopilot was guiding the ship to a point on the near edge. a large crater surrounded by a field of boulders up to 2-3 meters in diameter (it was later established that this crater West, 165 m in diameter). Scientifically, landing next to a large crater would be very valuable. However, Armstrong quickly realized that it would not be possible to land the Eagle in a sufficiently safe place without reaching the crater. He decided to fly over it.

At an altitude of about 140 meters The commander switched the computer to semi-automatic mode, in which the landing stage engine is automatically controlled and maintains a constant vertical speed of 1 m / s, and the attitude control engines are controlled entirely manually. Armstrong reduced the backward tilt of the lunar module from 18 ° to 5 ° from vertical. This increased the forward horizontal travel speed to 64 km / h. As the lunar module flew over the crater, the commander began to look for a place suitable for landing and chose a relatively level area between small craters and a field of boulders.

At an altitude of about 80 meters the vertical rate of descent was about 0.5 m / s. Aldrin said 8% of the fuel remained. After a few more seconds, he added that he saw the shadow of the "Eagle" on the surface of the moon. In the final phase of the landing approach, the lunar module was rotated approximately 13 ° to the left of the course, and the shadow was out of Armstrong's field of vision. At an altitude of 30 meters, Aldrin reported that 5% fuel remained and that a warning had flashed. The 94-second countdown began, after which Armstrong has only 20 seconds left to land the ship or urgently interrupt the landing and take off. After 33 seconds, the telecom operator at MCC in Houston, Charles Duke, warned that there were 60 seconds left. The landing radar “lost” its surface for several seconds. Armstrong's pulse rate at the final stage of landing reached 150 beats per minute.

At a height of 12 meters Aldrin reported moon dust rising.

At a height of about 9 meters As Armstrong recalled, the Eagle for some unknown reason began to move left and back. It was possible to cope with the movement back, but it was not possible to completely extinguish the movement to the left. It was impossible to slow down the descent or hover even more, since there was very little fuel left, and the allowed time limit before the interruption of boarding was almost exhausted.

Shortly after Aldrin reported that height 6 m. , the vertical speed is 0.15 m / s, and the horizontal speed is 1.2 m / s, Duke of Houston warned that 30 seconds remaining... Nine seconds after this warning, Aldrin shouted: “ Contact signal!" It is happened in20:17:39 UTC July 20 (102 hours 45 minutes 39.9 seconds of flight time) ... A blue contact signal meant that at least one of the 1.73 m long probes touched the lunar surface, which were attached to three of the four supports (except for the one where the ladder was). After 1.5 seconds after that, Armstrong turned off the engine. In a post-flight survey, he said that he could not accurately determine the moment of landing. The landing was so soft that it was difficult to determine the moment when the ship landed on the ground..

After landing on the moon, Armstrong told Earth: “ Houston, says Tranquility Base. "Eagle" sat down". Charles Duke replied, out of excitement, saying: “ Got you, "Swok ...", "Calm". You have landed. We were all blue here. Now we breathe again. Thank you very much!»

The lunar module stood on the ground with a slight tilt back at 4.5 ° from the vertical, it remained rotated 13 ° to the left of the flight path. Post-flight analysis showed that the Eagle's landing stage had 349 kg. fuel... That would be enough for 25 seconds of freezing, after which there would be 20 seconds left to start the take-off stage engine and interrupt the landing. The next "Apollo" after landing remained from 499 to 544 kg.

The ship landed at the point with coordinates 0.67408 ° N sh. 23.47297 ° E etc., 6858 meters west of the center of the landing area ellipse:

Apollo 11 landing site (blue arrow points at him) - Southwest area of \u200b\u200bthe Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility

During first 2 hours stay on the moon Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were busy imitation of prelaunch preparation - in case, for any reason, there would be a need to prematurely terminate the stay on the Moon.

After its completion, Armstrong requested permission from Houston, instead of rest, which was the next item in the flight plan, after about 3 hours start to surface... Permission was given in less than half a minute, it was clear to everyone that the emotional state of astronauts will still prevent them from falling asleep... In addition, the main event of the mission moved from late night in the US East Coast time to best airtime (for live broadcast).

Then Aldrin, as elder of the Presbyterian Church, held a short private church service, performing the sacrament of the sacrament... Aldrin had with him a small plastic box containing a travel set of miniature chalice, guest and wine, which he had taken in advance from Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston. After the flight, Aldrin returned the miniature chalice to Webster Church. Every year on the Sunday closest to July 20, local parishioners there take part in worship Lunar Eucharist... Armstrong, being an atheist, did not take part in the ceremony, and did not take communion.

From obtaining permission for an early exit to the lunar surface to the beginning of depressurization of the lunar module cabin passed more than 4 hours... After opening the exit hatch, at 109 hours 16 minutes 49 seconds of flight time , Armstrong, turning his back to him, began to squeeze slowly into him. Aldrin told him in which direction to move and turn, so as not to catch on. Climbing onto the landing above the stairs, Armstrong first rehearsed the return to the lunar module... He crawled into it again and knelt down. Everything turned out fine.

Taking garbage bag, which Aldrin handed him, he again got out to the site and threw the bag onto the lunar surface:

The garbage bag was the first object that a person who arrived on another cosmic body threw at him. Is this not a prophetic symbol - a characteristic of our future planetary development?

After that, Armstrong pulled the ring and opened the landing stage cargo compartment to the left of the stairs (when looking at the lunar module), thereby turning on the TV camera, which filmed his first step to the lunar surface (see video below). Descending onto the circular support plate of the lunar module, Armstrong jumped back to the bottom rung of the stairs and informed Aldrin that it was possible to return back, but you needed to jump well. He jumped down on the plate again and reported to Houston that the module supports are pressed into the surface by only 2.5-5 cmalthough the lunar soil is very fine-grained, almost like a powder when viewed from close range.

Holding the ladder with your right hand, Armstrong left foot stepped on the lunar surface (the right one remained on the plate) and said:

“This is one small step for a person, but a giant leap for all of humanity. »

(« That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind »)

This happened in 109 hours 24 minutes 20 seconds flight time , or in 02 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds UTC July 21, 1969 ... Edwin Aldrin joined him 15 minutes later.

The phrase when landing on the moon was drawn up in advance, howeverout of excitement, Armstrong skipped the indefinite article before the word man, which is clearly audible in the recording. Thus, the meaning of the phrase was distorted: the word man without an article does not mean an individual person, but a person, as a species, humanity.

According to childhood friend Armstrong, the phrase about two different steps was inspired by the children's play Mother May Iin which you need to take big or small steps forward.

All countries were broadcasting about the landing of a man on the moon, except for the USSR and China... In the countries of the former USSR, a legend is spread that at the time of the first landing on the Moon, when more than 1 billion people in the rest of the world watched a live broadcast from the Moon, the film "The Pig and the Shepherd" was allegedly shown on the Central Television of the USSR. However, at this moment, 5:56 am Moscow time, USSR Central Television did not broadcast at all; in 1969, the transmission of DH began only in 8 a.m.

On the lunar surface, astronauts tried various modes of movement, collected 21.55 kg. lunar soil samples, installed scientific instruments, talked to President Nixon, installed a plaque, an American flag and commemorative medals in honor of the fallen American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. Armstrong went to the Small Western Crater with a diameter of 30 meters, located in 60 meters east of the lunar module, and took a number of pictures there. This was the maximum distance of astronauts from the lunar module during this expedition.

The stay outside the ship continued 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds.

When Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the lunar module and removed their helmets and gloves, they felt acrid smell of moon dust... The astronauts wiped their faces and hands with wet wipes and towels. A particle of moon dust got into Armstrong's eye, but it was removed without any problems; Neither he nor Aldrin were able to clean the moon dust from under his nails to the end.

Aldrin reported to Earth that on the control panel, on the right, where it stands, one switch is in the wrong position, in which you need, and the takeoff stage engine ignition switch is generally broken... Most likely, this happened when Aldrin was turning in the cockpit with a knapsack over his shoulders. The astronauts began looking for ways to turn on the broken switch. It turned out that the felt-tip pen, which they had on board, was suitable for these purposes.

After answering a number of questions from specialists on Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin cleaned up the cockpit and steel go to bed... I had to sleep in spacesuits. Aldrin, he said, had a two-hour nap in fits and starts. Armstrong was approaching a state of drowsiness, but could not fall asleep.

Three days before the start of Apollo 11, July 13, 1969 , The USSR launched an automatic station "Luna-15", which was supposed to reach the moon just on the day of launch, July 16 ... For the Americans, this launch was a mystery, but it was suggested that its purpose was to softly land the device on the moon and return it to Earth with lunar soil samples before the return of Apollo 11. July 16 Luna-15 successfully entered the lunar orbit. During 52 orbits, 86 communication sessions were conducted with her, but when attempting to land July 21, 1969, i.e. during Armstrong and Aldrin's stay on the Moon, she crashed in the Sea of \u200b\u200bCrises (ie, not so far, by lunar standards, from the Apollo 11 landing site).

Upon awakening, the astronauts began to prepare for takeoff... The lunar module take-off stage engine was turned on as planned. at 124 hours 22 minutes of flight time ... Thus, the stay on the surface of the moon continued 21 hours 36 minutes and 21 seconds.

The first 10 Seconds "Eagle" rose strictly vertically. Aldrin saw through his porthole how, under the influence of the jet stream, small pieces of thermal insulation of the landing stage flew in different directions, and the flag they set fell... When the speed reached 12 m / s, the ship turned 50 ° nose forward, so that the horizontal speed began to increase.

The trajectory of the vertical launch of the takeoff stage of the lunar ship from the surface of the Moon

After 7 minutes "Eagle" entered an intermediate orbit from perilune 17 km and settlement 87 km.

About an hour after take-off with both ships over the far side of the moon, Armstrong turned on the attitude control engines. The lunar module has entered an almost circular orbit, whose perilune rose to 83.3 km.

The active section of the trajectory of the takeoff stage of the lunar spacecraft into orbit of an artificial lunar satellite

The launch of the lunar spacecraft takeoff stage into the orbit of an artificial moon satellite

The transition of the takeoff stage of the lunar ship to a phasing orbit and a constant height difference

As a result of several more successive maneuvers 3.5 hours after take-off "Eagle" and "Columbia" got close to distance 30 m.

Maneuver of constant altitude difference, final phasing, correction of the trajectory of the meeting of the take-off stage with the main block of the ship.

Shortly after Armstrong and Aldrin moved to the command module,the takeoff stage of the "Eagle" was dropped ... She remained in orbit, but eventually had to fall to the moon. Collins drove the Columbia to a safe distance with a 7-second firing of the attitude control engines.

At the very beginning of the 31st orbit, when the ship was over the far side of the Moon, there wasits main engine is on... He worked 2 minutes 28 seconds. Apollo 11 has switched to a flight path to Earth:

Entering the trajectory of returning to Earth (LPRE is switched on for 149 sec, when the ship was behind the lunar disk, flight speed increment 1003 m / s)

The astronauts put the command and service module into passive thermal control mode (slow rotation around the longitudinal axis), and the crew began to 10 hour night rest period.

At 195 hours 03 minutes 06 seconds of flight time Apollo 11 on an altitude of 122 km from the surface of the Earth entered the dense layers of the atmosphere with speed 11 km / s.:

Orientation of the ship's command compartment when entering the atmosphere, the process of deploying parachutes and landing in the Pacific Ocean

The trajectory of the entry into the atmosphere of the ship's command compartment (timestamps after 1/2 min)

After 15 minutes the ship splashed down 3 km from the design point and 24 km from the aircraft carrier Hornet", At the point with coordinates 13 ° 19 ′ (13.30 °) N 169 ° 09 ′ (169.15 °) W

Landing site for the command compartment of the ship

The crew was lifted aboard a helicopter and taken to an aircraft carrier63 minutes after splashdown.

After 2 hours 5 minutes Columbia was also delivered there. Astronauts switched from helicopter to mobile quarantine van... Sample containers passed double sterilization: first with ultraviolet rays, then with peracetic acid. Four more technicians were quarantined. In total, 23 people were quarantined. However, no pathogens or symptoms of infectious diseases were found either in the astronauts or in anyone in quarantine with them, so it was decided to end quarantine for people. at 1 am on August 11, a day earlier than planned.

Samples of the same lunar rock had to remain in the Lunar laboratory longer, from 50 to 80 days, until the results of all inoculations for microorganisms were ready. Several hundred grams of regolith and lunar rock chips have become material for determining their toxicity and pathogenicity. Lunar material tested on sterile mice and various plants... Not a single case that could indicate a danger to terrestrial organisms was noted, only a few minor deviations from the norm. For example, it turned out that lunar rock samples stimulated the growth of some plants... It was concluded that lunar soil is biologically safe.

At noon on September 12 the quarantine was terminated. The study of the delivered samples continued in laboratories around the world.

An animated reconstruction of the main stages of the flight can be viewed "- reconstruction of the Apollo 11 mission. Against the backdrop of well-known facts, the story unfolds in the picture hitherto unknown circumstances flight preparation: technical difficulties and intricacies of astronaut relationships, painstaking presentation of travel details, supplemented by never-before-published archive footage in HD quality, cutting-edge special effects. The film debunks many myths that have existed for decades. Filmed for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight (2009):

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It should be noted that the Soviet Union had in the same years manned lunar flight program... Why it was not implemented, why the USSR "lost" the moon race to America, can be discussed separately.

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It is also impossible not to say that there is« lunar conspiracy hypothesis » (or "Lunar scam"), claiming that American astronauts have never been to the moon, and everything that mankind knows about this is a successful imitation, hoax NASA and the US government.

You can watch, for example, the following videos about this hypothesis:

Sources: http://wikipedia.org, godkosmicheskojjery.ru, files.radioscanner.ru, zhistory.org.ua, testpilot.ru, bwana.ru, epizodsspace.narod.ru

The summer of 1969 was remembered for many grandiose events, one of which was the flight and landing of the first man on the lunar surface. Such a step can be compared with the first manned flight into outer space, which was made by Yuri Gagarin.

The moon has always attracted the attention of people because of its proximity to Earth. It is like an elbow on a hand - close, but you cannot bite. Some civilizations revered her more than the Sun, poems and poems were dedicated to the Moon, and astrologers believed that she was capable of influencing both the fate of people and entire states.

The moon has always been a mystical object for people, so it was endowed with various mysterious properties and was attributed to a connection with evil spirits.

The dream of mankind to visit the moon was embodied not only in exciting science fiction novels, but also in real life... As a result of the big space race, organized by the USSR and the USA, the Moon submitted to man.

Americans on the moon: how it was

Who was first on the moon? For many, the answer to this question is obvious - the Americans. We all know that American astronauts were the first to land on the moon. More precisely - Neil Armstrong, whose foot set foot on the moon 44 years ago. Neil Armstrong is the captain of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, whose crew, consisting of two more astronauts (Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins), left the cosmodrome located at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA 4 days before the landing.

Neil Armstrong, stepping for the first time on the surface of a satellite of the Earth, said that his small step is a huge step in the history of all mankind.

The call sign Columbia was chosen for the command bay of Apollo 11 (this is the name of the ship in Jules Verne's novel Voyage to the Moon); for the lander - "Eagle". On the hull of the spacecraft was an emblem - a bald eagle hovering over the lunar surface with an olive branch in its claws.

The historic launch of the Apollo 11 apparatus was watched by almost a million people who were at the cosmodrome and viewing platforms specially mounted for this grand event. Among them was the US President R. Nixon. More than a billion earthlings watched the telecast of the astronauts' launch, according to American data.

Taking off on the Moon on July 16, the spacecraft entered the Moon's orbit after 76 hours. The spacecraft modules - command and lunar - were undocked after a hundred hours from the launch from the cosmodrome.

Initially, NASA assumed that the lunar landing of the module would occur automatically, but the captain of Apollo 11 made it in a semi-automatic mode.

The lander with astronauts landed on the surface of the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility. After landing, the astronauts checked the operation of the onboard systems, made an imitation of the lunar launch and went live video with the Earth, showing the moment the captain came to the lunar surface. It took almost five hours from the moment of landing on the moon to the first step. A quarter of an hour later, the pilot who controlled the lunar module, Edwin Aldrin, set foot on the moon after the captain. The time of his stay on a natural satellite of the Earth was just over 1.5 hours, Neil Armstrong spent a little more than two hours there.

As a result of their stay on the moon, the astronauts tested several methods of locomotion under lunar gravity (ordinary walking was the most convenient), collected soil samples (the total weight of the samples delivered to earth was almost 25 kg) and, of course, planted the American flag.

The total time spent by astronauts on the moon was 21.5 hours - after this time the module was launched from the surface to deliver travelers to Earth. The Apollo 11 crew returned 195 hours after the launch. In their homeland, all astronauts became heroes and the first conquerors of the moon.

After themselves on the moon, earthlings left a landing stage from the lunar module, on which a plaque with a commemorative inscription and signatures of three astronauts and President Nixon flaunted.

The first real journey of earthlings to the moon ended well. The entire crew returned to Earth.

Who was first on the moon?

Now there are many different versions about how who was first on the moon ... There are many adherents of the theory that the pioneers of the moon were not Americans at all. We, the Russians, did it long before them. The authors of many documentary books and films about the conquest of outer space reinforce their words with facts declassified from the military materials of the USSR.

Conquest of the Moon American Style

Let's start with the fact that in 1957 the USSR became the first state to launch an artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1, into space. The first American satellite, Explorer-1, "visited" space a year later. These events gave rise to the era of space exploration and the space race between two states - the USSR and the USA. Along with the launches of artificial satellites, both countries were preparing for the development of the lunar surface. However, after Gagarin discovered space for us, the Americans did not abandon the idea of \u200b\u200bgetting ahead of the Soviet Union and what would not be worth being the first to visit the moon.

Everyone knows the information that the Americans were the first to visit the moon. However, many argue that the American trip to the moon was just a Hollywood production. We will not argue with anyone. There are facts that it was the Russians who first visited the moon.

1. The first flight to a celestial body was carried out by the Mechta space station, launched in January 1959. According to the results of the flight, it was found that at a distance of 5 thousand km from the Moon, the celestial body has no magnetic field. Having entered the heliocentric orbit, "Dream" became the first planet of the solar system, created artificially. The Americans repeated a similar launch only in March 1959.
2. September 14, 1959 for the first time mankind was able to reach the lunar surface with the help of the Soviet spacecraft "Luna-2". The Americans managed to do the same after 10 years.
3. Soviet spaceship "Luna-3" October 7, 1959. first took pictures of the far side of the moon. In the same flight, the world's first gravity assist maneuver was carried out. And what about the Americans? For its part, the United States tried to keep up with the USSR, but all repeated attempts (there were four of them) to photograph the Moon from a short distance ended in failure. And only in 1964, the Americans were able to carry out their plans.
4. February 3, 1966 the Soviet automatic station "Luna-9" made a soft landing in the largest lunar sea - the Ocean of Storms. The United States repeated this in May 1966.
5. April 3, 1966 The USSR launched into space the Luna-10 spacecraft, which became the world's first artificial moon satellite. The Americans repeat the Soviet experience only after four months.
6. September 15, 1968 The USSR launched Probe-5 with "passengers" on board - steppe turtles, which, having circled the moon at a distance of almost 2 thousand km, returned to Earth in 6 days.

In the lunar epic, the Americans were always haunted by failure. They could not possibly overtake the Soviet Union.

And suddenly ... the American media reports that Neil Armstrong is landing on the moon. This event could be believed if there were small inaccuracies - the starry sky behind the astronauts is mirrored, the "behavior" of the American flag in airless space, etc. And most importantly - a lot of clear photos and not a single clear video. All lunar footage turned out to be blurry. In this case, let us believe the Americans that staying on the Moon was accompanied by constant breakdowns of video cameras.

One can argue endlessly about the lunar race, in fact it did not exist, because the plans of the USSR did not even include landing people on a natural satellite of the Earth.

Who was first on the moon? According to these facts, the Russians were the first in everything, from the launch of the first artificial earth satellite, the first permanent space station, and to manned spacewalk.