Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: "Beyond the Energia crisis"
Message-ID: <1169@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 88 15:16:45 GMT
References: <10654@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 19

From article <10654@tekecs.TEK.COM>, by nobody@tekecs.TEK.COM (-for inetd server command):
> I recall reading in "Chariots for Apollo" (the NASA history of the
> Moon program) that the Soviets soft-landed a probe on the Moon.
> It scooped up some soil, and successfully returned it to Earth!
> This all happened just a year or so before the U.S. manned Moon
> landing.  Anyone else know more about this?

No, the probe actually flew the year after the US landing. Luna-16
flew to the moon and back in Sep 1970, bringing home a small amount
of lunar rock. They tried once earlier, while Armstrong and Aldrin were
actually on the Moon! Luna-15 tried to land in Mare Crisium to upstage
Apollo 11's triumph.. but it crashed. Eagle landed at Tranquility
after Armstrong took over direct control to avoid a similar fate.
But I won't get into 'uses of humans in space' here, we've talked about 
it enough lately. Luna-20 in 1972 and Luna-24 in 1976 also returned
a few hundred grams of lunar material (much much less than the Apollo
missions), while Luna-18 and Luna-23 failed in similar attempts.

Jonathan McDowell