Luna 15 was the last-ditch Soviet attempt to upstage the American landing on the Moon. While Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to leave Tranquility Base, the Soviet robot began its descent towards the lunar surface. At 10:51 Houston time, British observers at Jodrell Bank lost track of the radio signal. One observer commented, ""I say, this has really been drama of the highest order."
Listen to a recording of the Jodrell Bank commentary here: https://bit.ly/KbAj5
Overview of the Luna programme: https://bit.ly/11cCE1
NASA page on Luna 15: https://bit.ly/In9O9
Read more about the demise of Luna 15 – https://bit.ly/AwIko
Previous @ApolloPlus40 coverage of Luna: Odds against Luna 15, (13 July 2009) and Russian rumours (2 July 2009).
This blog post is part of the @ApolloPlus40 series, which accompanies the ApolloPlus40 Twitter project by Nature News, a re-telling of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, 40 years later.