How and why the Soviets lost the race to the moon

At the beginning of 1960s, the USSR was the main space power. The first satellite, Sputnik (1957) and the first astronautYuri Gagarin (1961) … However, in the race to reach the Moon, they were overwhelmed by the Americans, who sought to recover the lost ground. The Soviet government denied publicly that it was working on a race of the moon, but secretly prepared during the sixties his inhabited programs. In front of one of them was Sergei Korolyov, the great engineer and designer of the space.

But the advances ended with the death of Korolyov. For many specialists, the key to Soviet failure was an internal struggle. Also the challenge of creating automatic spaceships, of great complexity, in which the cosmonauts were practically mere pbadengers.

The luck ended with the death of Gagarin in an accident in 1968. In a way, the Soviets were the first to reach the moon, but not with an inhabited flight. The first robot to hit the moon was the Soviet Luna 2.

Shortly before, on April 23, Vladimir Komarov had left Baikonur, but his ship quickly presented technical problems and the ship crashed on her return to Earth, causing the cosmonaut's death. The Soyuz was not ready and, as this was one of the cornerstones of the program, many people stopped there.

The rest of the story is known. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. When they left, they left in their place a medal on which are engraved the names of their companions of Apollo 1, but also those of Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov.

The moon was a political career. The Soviet Union did not arrive because the United States landed first. Another story is that with the current Cold War between Washington and Moscow, President Putin has put back to the idea the idea of ​​returning to the moon.

By Xavier Colas.