Word: luna
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Shortly before Apollo 11 was launched in July 1969, Russian scientists sent an unmanned spaceship to the moon. Its probable mission was to land on the lunar surface, scoop up some soil and beat the Americans back to earth with the first samples of moon material. Luna 15 never achieved that ambitious goal. Several hours after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first mortals to step onto the moon, the Soviet spaceship dropped out of lunar orbit, apparently crashed and was never heard from again...
Last week, in a rerun of that abortive flight, the Soviets had far better luck. Their unmanned Luna 16 landed on the moon, gathered up a small sample of lunar soil, took off again and returned its cargo safely to earth. The entire mission was an impressive technological tour de force that gave the Russians a sorely needed boost in morale (a typical Muscovite-in-the-street comment: "See, we're not so far behind the Americans"). NASA's acting chief, George Low, sent his congratulations to Moscow, and called the first unmanned recovery of extraterrestrial material...
...first expedition to the lunar highlands, Apollo 13 may bring back rocks nearly 5 billion years old, going back to the very beginnings of the solar system. Such trophies would more than convince scientists that the astronauts did not lightly pick the Apollo 13 mission motto: Ex Luna, Scientia -From the Moon, Knowledge...
...site, the target area is covered with jagged hills and ridges, some of them hundreds of feet high. There are relatively few level sites in the vicinity, and the landing will require all of Command Pilot Lovell's skill. But the Apollo 13 astronauts-whose motto is Ex Luna, Scientia (From the Moon, Knowledge)-are taking the risk because of the area's immense geological importance. Unlike the flatter, smoother lunar maria, the highlands have apparently been little changed since the moon was formed some 4.5 billion years ago; thus their structure and composition will give scientists...
...guess when Look Out for Your Faces will be performed again in Russia. Last week Moscow was buzzing with speculation on which of the show's skits, poems and songs had offended the Central Committee. Among the possibilities: > In one skit, performers hold up letters spelling out A luna kamila, a palindrome meaning "The moon has vanished." An official, hypersensitive about the Soviet failure to get a man on the moon first, might have seen this as a suggestion that the moon had vanished to the Americans. But Voznesensky also includes the line, "They stepped on its soul with...