The United States wasn’t the only country hoping to land on the moon in July 1969 — the Soviets were trying to beat us to the punch by landing the unmanned spacecraft Luna 15 while Apollo 11’s Columbia was still in orbit around the moon. Now, thanks to the discovery of previously unheard recordings from 1969, you can listen to the unfolding drama.

Astronomers from the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics unearthed these forgotten audio files while researching materials for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The recordings come from the control room of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell and colleagues were listening to transmissions from the moon on the Lovell radio telescope.

The newly released recordings chronicle events from July 19 through July 21, 1969, with Lovell narrating as events unfold. The first two minutes of the recording reveal that the Luna 15 had dramatically changed its orbit. After the U.S. astronauts landed on the lunar surface on July 20, Luna 15 altered its course to get closer to the Apollo 11 landing site.

But the real excitement begins on July 21, when Lovell reports on “a rumor from a well-informed source in Moscow that this Luna is going to land this evening” — and return to the Soviet Union with lunar rock samples.

The Soviets never got close to that ambitious goal. At 15:50 on July 21, the astronomers listened as the Luna 15 crashed into the moon’s surface. In the final moments before the spacecraft hits the moon, voices from the control room say, “It’s landing” and “It’s going down much too fast!”

As the tape ends, one observer sums it up: “I say, this has really been drama of the highest order.”

See Also:

Audio: Courtesy of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. Copyright: © Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester

Image: Courtesy of the NASA History Office and the NASA JSC Media Services Center at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.



