The Moon: What other countries have sent people to the moon?

[battleknight24]

I was reading an article the other day that said when the Soviets launched SPUTNIK, everybody blamed American public schools for the nation's failure to beat the Soviets into space (when things are bad, blame public schools- when things are good, give credit elsewhere...). What other countries have sent people to the moon? Did the Soviet Union or Russia ever send a person to the moon? Did the Soviet Union or Russia ever "hit" the moon (satellites, rockets, etc)? I'm just wondering, because, since every other industrialized country around the world has a better public education system than ours, there must be lots of far superior space programs out there. Other countries have probably achieved a lot more with their space programs... right?



Peace,

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. The Soviets were the first to land on the moon.

With a probe.

Americans were so behind with everything else (first into space, first person into space, first person to orbit, first to another planet, first to the moon, etc.) that they were the first to land people on the moon and called it an accomplishment. Even though nobody was really that interested.

[Taverner]

3. Of course. It's amazing what government can do if it puts its mind to it.

Yeah yeah yeah Stalin and Beria bad but because they 'lost' the cold war they don't get credit for any of their achievements.

I remember the Wingnuts getting all bent out of shape when Google honored Sputnik - but who was first? Was it us?

[battleknight24]

5. Today, TONS of countries around the world...

... have better space programs, right?


Peace,

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Certainly more efficient space programs.

You don't see other countries dumping billions into the shuttle boondoggle.

[battleknight24]

8. I was being a little sarchastic with all my posts...

.

[pokerfan]

12. List of Soviet space firsts

The Soviet space program led the space race from 1957 through 1967 setting many records:

* 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka
* 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1
* 1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2
* 1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1
* 1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.
* 1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Solar orbit, Luna 1
* 1959: First probe to impact the moon, Luna 2
* 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3
* 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.
* 1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1
* 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1
* 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme
* 1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2
* 1962: First dual manned spaceflight and approach, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4. While considered by some to be the first space rendezvous, Vostok 3 and 4 were 5 km apart as they passed each other in the closest point in their respective orbits, and the orbits were in different orbital planes. US Gemini 6A/Gemini 7 did the first parallel flight, three years later, however without docking. Actual docking was first done in 1967 by Soviet Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188 and manned docking with exchange of crew was first done by Soviet Soyuz 4/Soyuz 5 (see below).
* 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6
* 1964: First multi-man crew (3), Voskhod 1
* 1965: First EVA, by Aleksei Leonov, Voskhod 2
* 1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3
* 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9
* 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10
* 1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.)
* 1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
* 1970: First samples automatically returned to Earth from another body, Luna 16
* 1970: First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1
* 1970: First data received from the surface of another planet (Venus), Venera 7
* 1971: First space station, Salyut 1
* 1971: First probe to orbit another planet (Mars), first probe to reach surface of Mars, Mars 2
* 1975: First probe to orbit Venus, first photos from surface of Venus, Venera 9
* 1984: First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya (Salyut 7 space station)
* 1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations (Mir and Salyut 7)
* 1986: First permanently manned space station, Mir, which orbited the Earth from 1986 until 2001
* 1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov on board of TM-4 - Mir

* In addition, except for the period following Korolyov's death in 1965 through the end of the Skylab program in 1974, virtually all manned duration records have been set by the Russians, due largely to their Salyut/Mir series of space stations.

[Richardo]

15. Please say the last sentence is sarcasm

It's late and I hope I'm missing something.

[ileus]

2. U.S.A.-1

[NightWatcher]

4. we never landed on the moon

it was a soundstage in hollywood

:popcorn:

[battleknight24]

6. No, I'm pretty sure it was real...

... but I'm pretty sure Elvis was involved in the assasination of JFK...

[Orsino]

9. The Soviets had two competing manned lunar programs...

...and were apparently hoping to steal our thunder well into 1969.

But only the U.S. ever launched astronauts beyond low earth orbit.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. I know Ralph Kramden planned to send people to the moon

[LibertyLover]

11. The US is the only country to put people on the moon

although both China and Japan are allegedly planning manned lunar missions.

[edbermac]

13. US govt was to blame for the early success of the USSR, not public schools.

The US captured important German rocket scientists after WW2, headed by Wehrner Von Braun. The Russians had an engineer named Sergei Korolyov who visited Germany to study captured V2 rockets and blueprints. Korolyov was put to work immediately to develop the Soviet rocket program by Stalin, who considered it a national priority. Von Braun openly complained later that the US had no rocketry program or funding to speak of for 5 or 6 years after his relocation to the US in 1945.

The Soviets tried hard to reach the moon after JFK's open challenge to them in 1961. However Korolyov died after a botched simple operation in Jan 1966. His successor Vasily Mishin tried 4 heavy booster tests for lunar orbit on a rocket called N1 that all ultimately blew up; the US had already landed on the moon; so they abandoned their attempt and concentrated on long duration space station missions.

What it comes down to is better funding more than better educational systems. As simple as the line from the movie The Right Stuff where an astronaut tells a rocket scientist "No bucks, no Buck Rogers"

[baldguy]

14. Give China a few more years.

There's going to be a new moon race from 2015-2025

[zanne]

16. I can think of people who should go to the moon. nt