Luna 1, 2 & 3 - 50 years hence |
Luna 1, 2 & 3 - 50 years hence |
Dec 8 2008, 09:24 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 149 Joined: 18-June 08 Member No.: 4216 |
Hi All,
I am not sure whether this is of interest to the community, but next year will see three rather significant 50th anniversaries in unmanned lunar and interplanetary spaceflight, those of Luna-1, the first probe to escape the gravitational field of the Earth (lunar impact intended), Luna-2, the first probe to actually hit the Moon and Luna 3, the first probe to image the Moon's far side. Luna-1 was launched on 2nd January 1959 and flew by the Moon on the 4th of the same month at a distance of 6000 km on its way to heliocentric orbit. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-012A Luna-2 was launched on the 12th of September of the same year, hitting the Moon on the 14th in the Palus Putredinus region (0 degrees longitude, 29 degrees N latitude) near the crater Archimedes. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-014A Luna-3 was launched less than a month later on 4th October (the second anniversary of Sputnik-1), swung around the Moon to image the far side on the 7th and transmittted its data to the Earth by the 18th. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-008A I don't know about you but I'm thinking of raising a glass of champagne a day later than New Year's Day in honour of Korolev and his merry band of pioneers. Happy Holidays to All, Tolis. |
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Dec 9 2008, 08:08 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Yep -- but only Snoopy's ascent stage survives. The descent stage crashed into the Moon in May or June, 1969. (No one is sure of the exact date, but it was dropped when the LM was in a 70 by 10 mile orbit, it had to have decayed pretty quickly.)
-the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Dec 11 2008, 12:59 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 753 Joined: 23-October 04 From: Greensboro, NC USA Member No.: 103 |
Yep -- but only Snoopy's ascent stage survives. The descent stage crashed into the Moon in May or June, 1969. (No one is sure of the exact date, but it was dropped when the LM was in a 70 by 10 mile orbit, it had to have decayed pretty quickly.) Two other pieces of Apollo hardware are still flying around out there, too - the S-IVB stages for Apollo 9 (which was deliberately placed in solar orbit) and Apollo 12 (which was accidental). The Apollo 12 S-IVB was initially recovered in 2002 when it was thought to be a NEO and given designation J002E3. -------------------- Jonathan Ward
Manning the LCC at http://www.apollolaunchcontrol.com |
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