I just watched a special on PBS about the Apollo missions and the space race.  The Russians were so close, did they ever send a man to the moon? Do you remember watching the moon landings on TV?  Thanks guys.

Do I remember?  Yep, I was 9 years old at the time...

If the Russians had made it, we would have heard about it until we were sick of it.  

no, the russians never landed men on the moon. they did (crash)land a couple of unmanned probes.
yes, i watched the landing on tv.

In 69 during the landing on the moon of Apollo 11, I heard some mentioning of a unmanned Russian Spacecraft crash landed on the moon somewhere.  I don't know if it was true or just propaganda.

No. The Russians never sent a man to the Moon. Their prototype  booster rocket exploded on launch during the testing phases. Pretty much ended their "Moon shot". I think this rocket was even bigger than our Saturn V.

The Russians never made it to the moon, we did.

It was an expensive venture, both in terms of dollars and human lives, several Astronauts lost their lives during the Appolo missions.

Steve Martin: "Say, isn't that the orange drink the astronauts took to the moon?"
Dan Akroyd, Jane Curtin: "Astronauts on the moon! Ahahahahahahahah!"

The russian unmanned probe made it to the moon - it impacted at 3000 meters per second, or something like that!

Weeeeelll, yes and no.  I don't think three counts as "several", however there were more who were killed in flying accidents and car crashes.  I think at least one drowned.  Most of the astronauts were fighter-jocks and tended to enjoy high-risk activities.  However, only Grissom, Chaffee, and White were actually killed while actively doing "space mission" stuff, and that was on the ground during a test.

As to the expense, bear in mind that the space program was one of the few governmental projects that came in on time and under budget, and the spinoffs from the technologies created to meet its demands are still being used (and improved on) today.  That project was worth every penny.

Unfortunately, because we handled it as a "race" rather than a deliberate step in the exploitation of space we didn't take advantage of where it could have taken us.

And no, the Russians (after watching us land) stated that they never intended to land a man on the moon - and never again tried.

see the fox special on this (on regular fox) a few months ago? pretty funny show

The Soviets were not even really in the race. They had not mastered several of the necessary manuvers needed to go. Also the booster they would have needed blew up on the pad. The History Channel had a show on Soviet Space Disasters several months ago. They even had footage of the booster blowing, and pad personnel running around on fire! The Soviets were talking about sending an unmanned robot onto the surface to steal Apollo's thunder. But they were unable to even do that. Yep, I watched the landing. I was in the 9th grade and stayed up til 0200 or so to watch a really crappy black and white picture. God, I was so really proud to be an American!

Americans are the ONLY nationality that has been on the moon. Soviets were not even it the race, get real they started the race. They were orbiting when we were not even thinking about going into space One word "sputnik" What do they teach you all in school these days. Proud to be an American. Dont be the example for the rest of us. Read, study, but get the facts straight. We had billions of dollars of mihaps and malfunction too. Remember all this was new ground.  The reason they did not continue because it was about who got there first.
GG

Posted by RamblinWreck....."The russian unmanned probe made it to the moon - it impacted at 3000 meters per second, or something like that!"                          That was no "Probe," around here we'd call that a "Projectile."

No!

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