@ApolloPlus40 - Russian rumours
The Associated Press picked up rumours that the USSR would make a third attempt at a lunar sample-return mission on 10 July, almost a week before Apollo 11's scheduled launch. If successful, the Luna mission would land on the Moon, scoop up some lunar soil and make other measurements while on the surface, and then a small rocket would return the soil sample to Earth for study.
The Soviet space programme made no secret of its secrecy, preferring to hide its failures and bask in the publicity of its successes, but occasionally negative information did leak out. The AP reported that the first Luna mission exploded on the launch pad at Baikonur, the Soviet launch facility, in early April 1969, and the second exploded in flight on 14 June 1969. A source told the AP that Soviet space officials were "very disturbed over the success of the American Apollo program. Losing the moon race will be a terrible blow to them." (Via NASA/Library of Congress history: [pdf])
