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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Jan 6 2009, 10:41 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
Speaking of Luna 1, some images from contemporary magazines:
The Luna 1 "container", where most of the instruments were located and its inside The 6 January press conference of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. At center Evald Mustel, chief of the Solar research commission, at right Anatoli Dorodnitsin, director of the academy's computation center. The person at left is not identified. |
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