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Luna 1, 2 & 3 - 50 years hence
tolis
post Dec 8 2008, 09:24 PM
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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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kenny
post Dec 9 2008, 10:26 PM
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I'm very familiar with Phil's 3 flights, and I mention each of those 3 Lunas in my talks to various audiences, with a brief discussion about what each did. Luna 2 had really tough metal balls inside with Communist symbols and pennants designed to survive impact, so there will be items there at the impact site, I suspect. I will go with Phil and raise a glass on 2nd Jan, or maybe it should be 3 times, on 2 other days also? They were great achievements in the human endeavour in space.
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Posts in this topic
- tolis   Luna 1, 2 & 3 - 50 years hence   Dec 8 2008, 09:24 PM
- - ZenDraken   I'd love to see a recovery mission for some of...   Dec 9 2008, 04:54 AM
|- - tedstryk   Luna 2 smashed into the moon and Luna 3 burned up ...   Dec 9 2008, 12:37 PM
- - As old as Voyager   Speaking of recovery...I've always thought tha...   Dec 9 2008, 07:23 PM
|- - Geert   QUOTE (As old as Voyager @ Dec 10 2008, 02...   Jan 18 2009, 09:49 AM
- - dvandorn   Yep -- but only Snoopy's ascent stage survives...   Dec 9 2008, 08:08 PM
|- - ilbasso   QUOTE (dvandorn @ Dec 9 2008, 03:08 PM) Y...   Dec 11 2008, 12:59 AM
|- - ZenDraken   QUOTE (ilbasso @ Dec 10 2008, 04:59 PM) T...   Dec 11 2008, 06:19 AM
|- - dvandorn   QUOTE (ZenDraken @ Dec 11 2008, 12:19 AM)...   Dec 11 2008, 06:37 AM
- - imipak   For those vehicles that impacted the moon, it...   Dec 9 2008, 09:18 PM
- - charborob   I remember seeing pictures of some of the craters ...   Dec 9 2008, 09:39 PM
- - Phil Stooke   The pictures are in the Apollo 16 Preliminary Scie...   Dec 9 2008, 09:55 PM
- - kenny   I'm very familiar with Phil's 3 flights, a...   Dec 9 2008, 10:26 PM
|- - tolis   QUOTE (kenny @ Dec 9 2008, 10:26 PM) I...   Dec 10 2008, 11:24 PM
- - Phil Stooke   I'll drink to that! Phil   Dec 10 2008, 02:25 PM
- - Phil Stooke   The tracking wasn't very good, but certainly m...   Dec 11 2008, 12:15 AM
- - dvandorn   I just realized I mis-stated something. At the ti...   Dec 11 2008, 06:15 AM
- - PhilCo126   NASA had a long "learning" path with the...   Dec 11 2008, 09:50 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Dvandorn mentions other impacts having dark ejecta...   Dec 11 2008, 02:07 PM
- - Paolo   Very good site for the 50th anniversary of Luna fi...   Dec 30 2008, 10:09 AM
- - Zvezdichko   Yeah, this is the best website. By the way - does...   Dec 30 2008, 10:18 AM
- - Zvezdichko   Happy anniversary! 50 years ago this day the ...   Jan 2 2009, 10:46 AM
- - Paolo   Speaking of Luna 1, some images from contemporary ...   Jan 6 2009, 10:41 AM
- - dvandorn   Hmmm... old Snoop was put into a heliocentric orbi...   Jan 18 2009, 04:54 PM
|- - lyford   QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jan 18 2009, 08:54 AM) ...   Jan 18 2009, 06:47 PM
|- - Geert   QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jan 18 2009, 11:54 PM) ...   Jan 20 2009, 02:30 AM
- - nprev   Lyford, I've always been fascinated by the des...   Jan 18 2009, 07:00 PM
- - Zvezdichko   QUOTE The basic paradigm for the Soviet vehicles s...   Jan 18 2009, 08:28 PM
- - Big_Gazza   AFAIK a lot of the visual differences between Sovi...   Jan 19 2009, 09:05 AM
- - Phil Stooke   "The Soviets with their much less capable ind...   Jan 20 2009, 04:07 AM
|- - Bernard   I totally agree whith your opinion, Phil. Soviet e...   Jan 20 2009, 08:36 AM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (Bernard @ Jan 20 2009, 09:36 AM) I...   Jan 20 2009, 09:57 AM
|- - Geert   QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 20 2009, 04:57 PM) B...   Jan 20 2009, 10:52 AM
- - Big_Gazza   Its gratifying to see so many UMSF'ies defendi...   Jan 20 2009, 11:42 AM
- - PhilCo126   Well indeed, but then again, these "Soviet-Ru...   Jan 28 2009, 08:57 PM
- - Zvezdichko   Happy anniversary, Lunar enthusiasts! 50 year...   Sep 14 2009, 11:22 AM
- - Paolo   Thanks, I was about to forget about that!   Sep 14 2009, 04:33 PM
- - Paolo   Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Lun...   Oct 4 2009, 08:59 AM
- - Paolo   Translated by Babel Fish from a post on the Novost...   Oct 4 2009, 09:22 AM
- - Paolo   Speaking of the first pictures of the farside of t...   Oct 19 2009, 05:00 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Yes, it is a very interesting cartographic curiosi...   Oct 19 2009, 05:32 PM


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