First Moon landing was nearly a US–Soviet mission

Wait, soviets already did automated sample returns while apollo was still ongoing [0]?! That&#x27;s quite a surprise to me... don&#x27;t think I ever came across this, and I do follow quite a bit of space news. E.g. this [1] recent set of videos how Apollo moon rocks are stored did not mention it at all, and I&#x27;d certainly expect them to have exchanged some samples.<p>Now I&#x27;d really love to learn more about what kind of tech that long ago achieved the precession necessary for an automated sample return.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Luna_16" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Luna_16</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=QxZ_iPldGtI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=QxZ_iPldGtI</a>

It is always healthy to be reminded that the seemingly insurmountable divisions of the now are often simply the results of short time choices long ago that had to be defended.<p>Certainly would have been nice if the lunar plaque had been sincere in a wider context.

Would never have happened. There were far too many protected technologies, weapons technologies, involved in getting to and from the moon. At some point the plug would have been pulled.

The Soviets beat is to nearly every space milestone. If it wasn’t for the untimely death of the architect of their space program, they would’ve beaten us to the moon too.

&gt; Kennedy’s assassination on 22 November 1963 scotched the plan<p>Not just that plan, but quite many other options.<p>Whoever did this was knowing quite well where we were going…<p>&quot;cui prodest&quot; is the answer I think.