(H/T – Allahpundit)
Agence France-Presse claims in a story about the Soviet Unio…er, Russia’s plans to have a manned Moon mission by 2025 that “(t)he only moon landing in history is NASA’s Apollo expedition in 1968.”
Really? Let’s review a short history of successful lunar landings (except for the first 2 items, crash-landings are not included), culled from NASA’s Lunar Exploration Timeline and John Walker’s Lunar Landing Sites page:
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 – impacted the Moon September 13, 1959 (first object to touch the Moon)
- America’s Ranger 4 – impacted the Moon April 26, 1962 (first American object to touch the moon)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 – landed on the Moon February 3, 1966 (first object to survive a landing through the use of airbags to absorb the impact of a 30+mph landing)
- America’s Surveyor 1 – landed on the Moon June 2, 1966 (first object to land on the Moon at a safe-for-humans speed; 16.5 ft/sec)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 13 – landed on the Moon December 24, 1966
- America’s Surveyor 3 – landed on the Moon April 20, 1967
- America’s Surveyor 5 – landed on the Moon September 11, 1967
- America’s Surveyor 6 – landed on the Moon November 10, 1967
- America’s Surveyor 7 – landed on the Moon January 10, 1968 (of note, the only lunar landing in 1968)
- America’s Apollo 11 – landed on the Moon July 20, 1969 (first manned landing and first mission to lift off from the Moon’s surface)
- America’s Apollo 12 – landed on the Moon November 19, 1969
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 16 – landed on the Moon September 20, 1970 (first unmanned mission to lift off from the Moon’s surface)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 17 – landed on the Moon November 17, 1970 (first rover – unmanned)
- America’s Apollo 14 – landed on the Moon February 5, 1971
- America’s Apollo 15 – landed on the Moon July 30, 1971 (first manned rover)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 20 – landed on the Moon February 21, 1972 (unmanned)
- America’s Apollo 16 – landed on the Moon April 20, 1972
- America’s Apollo 17 – landed on the Moon December 11, 1972 (last manned mission)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 21 – landed on the Moon January 15, 1973
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 23 – landed on the Moon November 6, 1974 (note: a drill on the lander was damaged during landing, rendering its primary mission of returning soil to Earth undoable)
- The Soviet Union’s Luna 24 – landed on the Moon August 18, 1976 (last mission that included a planned “survivable” landing)
There have been several missions in the last decade and a half where a spacecraft has been intentionally crashed into the Moon as the last act of the mission. Also, there were far more than 24 Soviet Luna missions; most of the spectacular failures were never acknowledged by the Soviets.
Don’t Know Much About History…
“The only moon landing in history is NASAÂ’s Apollo expedition in 1968.” Via Hot Air; more here. Don’t let Buzz hear about this!……