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Russia still blue over moon landing 40 years later

2009-07-20 11:55:56

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 19, 2:01 pm ET

MOSCOW When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, it was a

first for the Soviet Union the first time the U.S. had beaten the U.S.S.R in

the space race. Forty years later, the memory of that loss of primacy still

seems to sting the Russian soul. When state TV channel Rossiya reported last

week on the restoration of video footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the

account gave a lot of attention to dubious conspiracy theories that the landing

was faked.

"In the United States, more than anywhere else, they are sure of the

believability of the steps on the moon," the report said, adding that Armstrong

keeps a very low profile. "This also seems strange to many people."

For a dozen years before the July 20, 1969, moon landing, Moscow racked up an

extraordinary array of superlatives. It was the first to send a craft into

orbit, with the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The first human to go into outer

space was Russian Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Moscow sent the woman into space,

Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; and Alexei Leonov was the first person to venture

outside a spacecraft into the endless cosmos, in 1965.

Russia even got to the moon first when the unmanned Luna 2 crashed in 1959. But

the drama of the first human footprint on an extraterrestrial body eclipsed

everything the Soviets had worked so hard to achieve.

"Beginning with the first flight with a primitive capsule, and then getting to

the moon, it was a great achievement for humanity," Russian astronaut Sergei

Krikalev said.

"Of course, we would have liked to see the first man on the moon be Soviet,

Russian, but that's life ... Our own achievements were very many," he told

Associated Press Television News.

In the 40 years since the Apollo 11 landing, the USSR and Russia, which

inherited the Soviet legacy, shot ahead of the United States occasionally only

to fall further behind.

The Soviet Union put the first space station into orbit with the Salyut 1 in

1971. However, the first crew couldn't get aboard because of docking problems.

Another three-man crew later got aboard, but died when a valve failed on the

capsule bringing them back to Earth.

Then there was the Mir -- the first space station fit for long-term habitation.

It achieved early glory. But that quickly faded after 1991, when the Soviet

collapse choked off funding for the space program and the Mir suffered a series

of accidents, including a collision and fires that tuned it into a symbol of

danger and decay.

Earthlings scanned the sky nervously on the day in 2001 when the 140-ton craft

plunged to its fiery end. Luckily, it landed in the Pacific Ocean.

In recent years, Russia's space program has earned as a workhorse rather than a

racehorse reliable, cooperative, even stolid.

Its cramped Soyuz manned capsules and unmanned Progress cargo ships had already

served as the lifeline to the International Space Station for more than two

years when the United States grounded its space shuttles in 2003, after the

Columbia disintegrated on re-entry. The Russian space program will once again

be the gatekeepers to the orbiting laboratory in 2010, when the shuttle fleet

is grounded for good.

That doesn't mean Russia has lost its ambitions for primacy in space.

The U.S. is busy planning to replace the shuttles. But last year, Russia

awarded contracts for design of its own next-generation spaceship to replace

the Soyuz. The competing efforts could trigger a new space race.

Russian space officials meanwhile still seem to be dreaming about winning the

next stage of the space race.

They keep talk in tantalizing terms about mounting a manned mission to Mars,

although they say that would take at least another 20 years to get off the

ground.

"I think this is fine. It's like sports at one stage one person wins, at

another it's somebody else," said Krikalev.