Planting a Flower on the Moon — Luna 9

I have this spare metal petal at work, from the JPL-equivalent in Soviet times.

The first soft landing on the moon was by Luna 9 in February 1966. Actually, it was the first time humanity operated a spacecraft on any planetary body, and the first success after 11 failed attempts. It proved that landing on the moon was possible, without sinking into the dust as some feared.

Cushioned by a landing bag for touchdown, Luna 9 unfolded four metal petals, like this one, which stabilized the spacecraft on the lunar surface. Rod antennas sprung out, with the inner surfaces of the petals serving as reflectors, and a rotating mirror and camera assembly sent back panoramic views of the lunar surface — the first time humanity saw close-up views of the surface of our moon. I like to think of it as the B612 rose. =)

Luna 9 now rests on the Oceanus Procellarum. This is the spare anchor petal for Luna 9, built by the Lavochkin Association, where I visited on my last trip to Russia.

The pictures from Luna 9 were not released immediately by the U.S.S.R. Instead, the U.K.’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, which was monitoring the craft, noticed that the signal format used was identical to the system used internationally by newspapers for transmitting pictures. The Daily Express rushed a suitable receiver to the Observatory and the pictures from Luna 9 were decoded and published worldwide.

And much of the mission detail comes from the NSA, intercepting the Soviet signals all the way. They even measured the Doppler shift of Luna-9 transmissions as she slowed down on descent to the lunar surface.