A historic event is about to unfold as a spaceship built by a Texas company is set to make a lunar touchdown on Thursday, marking America’s return to the Moon after more than five decades. This achievement, spearheaded by the private sector, is anticipated to be a significant milestone.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some notable attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, at landing on the Moon.
First Survivable Landing
The Soviet Union took an early lead in the Cold War space race, accomplishing several milestones such as launching the first satellite into orbit and sending the first human into space. On February 3, 1966, they achieved another remarkable feat by executing the first soft touchdown on lunar soil with the Luna 9 probe. Utilizing retrograde thrusters and inflatable airbags to cushion its landing, Luna 9 was equipped with a radiation detector and panoramic camera, transmitting the first images from the Moon’s surface. This historic moment was marked by astronomers at the Jodrell Bank observatory in the UK, who were the first to publish intercepted images from Luna 9, preceding the official release.
Despite their early successes, the Soviet space program faced challenges due to mismanagement and bureaucratic obstacles, causing them to lag behind the more efficiently managed and well-funded American program. After half a century since their last Moon mission, Russia’s 2023 attempt to land a robot ended in failure, highlighting its diminished status as a space power.
Project Apollo
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy presented a proposal to Congress, setting the ambitious goal of landing a man on the Moon and safely returning him to Earth before the end of the decade. This vision led to the inception of Project Apollo, which involved a significant investment of $300 billion when adjusted for inflation, and employed a workforce of 400,000 at its peak. The project successfully facilitated the landing of six spacecraft and 12 astronauts between 1969 and 1972.
The iconic Apollo 11 mission marked the first crewed touchdown on the Moon on July 20, 1969, with astronaut Neil Armstrong delivering his famous line,
