The 18th-century battle over lunar motion

Abstract

About two years after Sputnik 1 began emitting radio signals, the Soviet Union's Luna 2 became the first manmade object to reach the Moon. The intestional crash landing of the spacecraft on 13 September 1959 once again demonstrated Soviet technological superiority over the US. That event can be regarded as the trigger of the so-called race to the Moon, initiated by President John F. Kennedy in May 1961. As the much-broadcast commemoration of Apollo 11 and the first manned landing on the Moon reminded us, the Americans won the competition. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.