Word: launch
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...months before Luna 15 was launched, rumors had circulated in Moscow that Soviet scientists would in one way or another try to steal some thunder from Apollo. Speculation intensified last month when Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov told Japanese newsmen that he expected his country to exhibit rocks from the moon-gathered by an unmanned spacecraft-at the 1970 world's fair in Osaka. Three weeks ago, reports were heard in Moscow that two earlier versions of Luna 15 had exploded prematurely-one on the launch pad early in April, the other shortly after launch on June...
...Russian shot came not from Moscow but from the irrepressible English astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell. "Listening to Apollo with one ear and Luna with the other," as Lovell put it, he tracked the loudly signaling Soviet ship with the 250-ft. Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Soon after launch, he determined that the spacecraft was traveling more slowly than previous Russian moon shots, was on a different trajectory and was transmitting "heaps" of information with a new kind of signal that he could not interpret. The slower velocity indicated to Lovell that the Russians were trying to economize on fuel, perhaps...
...Russians would attempt "to land the whole spacecraft, or part of it, and collect some rock." Most Western scientists, however, doubted that such a feat could be brought off successfully on the first try. They know that the Soviets have not yet even tested a rocket large enough to launch a Luna with enough fuel to land on the moon and take off again. They also believe that Russian space techniques are still not sophisticated enough to detach a craft from the orbiting Luna, land it and launch it again to rendezvous with the mother ship for the return trip...
...space relations. The two countries regularly exchange weather-satellite data. They have signed a treaty for the safe return of any of their spacemen who inadvertently come down within the other nation's boundaries. But the competition remains intense. Moscow continues to maintain almost complete secrecy, never announcing launch dates or mission goals in advance, releasing precious little information during or after a mission, and never allowing an American to witness a launch...
...brief time this month, as the Russians atypically heaped good wishes and praise on the forthcoming Apollo 11 flight, it appeared that a turning point had been reached in U.S.-Soviet space relations. Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin even accepted a NASA invitation to witness the Apollo 11 launch at Cape Kennedy-the first Russian official to do so. Under normal diplomatic protocol, his attendance might have obligated the Russians to invite an American to a launch in the Soviet Union. But early last week, the Russian embassy in Washington revealed that Dobrynin would be out of the country at the time...