Word: spacecrafts
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...beyond doubt one of the greatest achievements of Soviet science. By landing the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft softly on the surface of the moon in condition to take and transmit pictures, Russian space scientists did more than edge ahead of the U.S. in the race to place a man on the lunar landscape. They proved that he would find a surface solid enough to stand on when he got there. Inexplicably, after announcing the landing, the Russians delayed capitalizing further on their triumph. Then, when British astronomers intercepted Luna 9's pictures and released them first, a Soviet scientist...
Earlier, the Russians had gone out of their way to tell the operators of Britain's giant 250-ft. Jodrell Bank radio telescope the precise frequency of Luna 9's transmissions. Forewarned, the British astronomers easily picked up and recorded the spacecraft's signals. Noting that they were suspiciously similar to ordinary wirephoto transmissions, the men at Jodrell Bank fed them into an ordinary facsimile machine hurriedly borrowed from London's Daily Express. The machine converted the signals into a light beam that varied in intensity as it mowed back and forth across photosensitive paper, producing...
Because Luna 9 landed in an area that would bask in sunshine for 14 consecutive earth days before lunar nightfall descended, British scientists were hopeful that the spacecraft's solar-powered batteries might last long enough for it to transmit pictures of the same scenes at regular intervals for several days. Then, as the sun gradually moved through its zenith toward the lunar horizon, ridges and rocks would cast changing shadows that would reveal more information about their size and shape. But at week's end the Russians announced that they had completed Luna 9's program...
...Upright Landing. This minor disappointment detracted but little from the magnitude of the Russian feat. By successfully slowing an unmanned, 3,400-lb. spacecraft from an approach velocity of 6,000 m.p.h. to a speed of about 10 m.p.h., and setting it down upright on the moon's surface, the Russians proved that they had finally mastered a technique essential for a manned mission. The first U.S. softlanding attempt with the problem-plagued Surveyor will not take place before May. And even then, U.S. space scientists will not have the experience that their Soviet counterparts have gained during four...
When the first U.S. astronauts make a lunar landing in late 1968 or 1969, many of the world's telescopes will be focused on their activities. But there will be some important exceptions. In seven small observatories scattered around the world from the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston to Carnarvon, Australia, small groups of NASA astronomers will be devoting their full attention to the sun. What they see might well determine the success or failure of the Apollo moon mission...