The Secret Failed Soviet Moon Landing

At the height of the Space Race, the United States and the Soviet Union bitterly tried to outdo one another, each attempting to be the first to succeed in a number of scientific and exploratory challenges. In the beginning the Soviets won many of the ‘firsts’, such as launching the first craft to enter Earth’s orbit, Sputnik 1 in October 1957, sending to space the first living animal, Laika, on Sputnik 2 in November 1957, and putting the first man in orbit with Yuri Gagarin’s mission in April 1961.

In fact, by most accounts, the USSR was even ahead of the United States in sending the first man to the moon by the time US president John F. Kennedy’s famous "We choose to go” speech in 1962. The Soviets had already landed the Luna 2 probe on the moon’s surface in 1959, and they were in the middle of developing a manned-mission that was strikingly similar to the US effort. Yet, that early success would eventually be forgotten as the Soviet Union buried their final moon missions in secrecy. Because just as Neil Armstrong was setting foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, the Luna 15 lander was crashing into the other side of the moon. It is a story the Soviets did not want the world to know...

- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. -

[Jay-lnco]

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
[muffled cyka blyat in orbit]

[JavierCR]

This is a pretty sad story about true friendship...

[mash]

Yuri Gagarin, a very respectable man. The fact he wanted to go instead of his friend, knowing it would kill him. Salute.

[opalprestonshirley]

So very sad, brave men die because others are in a rush. R.I.P.

[equarg]

Wow. I have never heard of these failed Russian attempts.
As an American, those Russian Cosmonauts deserve to be remembered.
To all Americans who died in our attempt to touch, the stars, RIP and God bless.
To all Russians who died in their attempt, RIP Comrades.

[dazuk]

Gagarin trying to take the place of his friend because he knew he was doomed...is a measure of the Man...willing to give up his own life to saves his friends....people like that are few and far between...

[juliovictormanuelschaeffer]

Kaffarov and Gagarin: a bro story that deserves a movie adaptation.

[Alef]

How was I never informed about this failed soviet spacecraft idling sweetly by in the background of the Apollo missions lunar landing!?! This is incredible info and I’m surprised it’s not mentioned in a Smithsonian article but rather on a YouTube video, blows my mind. Great job DarkDocs👏🏻

[michaelwillette]

I am old enough to remember the atmosphere of wartime intensity that existed during the "Space Race". I grew up with it. Something we cannot conceive of today. We mourned the loss of the Apollo 1 Astronauts (Grissom, White, & Chaffee) but accepted them as if they were battlefield sacrifices. Our honored dead. Heros...
At 13 i watched Apollo 13 land. At 16 in 1971 i was an unpaid high school intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as a technical illustrator assisting with Mariner 9. I saw the raw footage of Apollo 15 on the moon from the Goldstone tracking station north of Los Angeles before Mission Control did.
The American Space Program was both worried & in awe of the Soviet effort. Rumors abounded of Cosmonauts' deaths. I had more info than the general public but still sketchy.
The Soviets had larger rockets early on but could not refine the massive ones needed for manned moon missions hense the crude plan. The mighty Saturn 5 was simply beyond them, but we could not be sure.
To this day no one knows just how many Cosmonauts died in the effort.
The long wait to return to the moon & get to Mars has frustrated me for 4 decades. The sense of urgency is not there. We worried then of living by the light of a Soviet moon. Now it might be a Chinese moon...

[honkhonk]

"The soviets were puzzled on how to rendevouz"
every time i play KSP

[user]

Cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, passed away this week.

[VashStarwind]

I cant believe you didnt mention that Komorov knew he was going to probably die on the mission, so he made sure his funeral would be open casket so the higher ups would see what they caused. There are some crazy photos of his funeral.

[johnmonk]

As a kid born 1955 I remember all this thoe a lot of the details were not known at the time, but the excitement and concerns for these heroes I still feel after watching this great retelling of our planets history. Dark five rocks.

[trevoranderson]

Soviet scientists: "We'll need at least five years, probably more to develop a competent, well rounded and safe moon program."
Soviet leadership: "You've got 18 months, take it or leave it"

[TheHelghast]

Yuri Gagarin will always be one of my great heroes even though I'm an American.

[MrMrich]

One day in the future, lunar colonists will eventually find the wreckage of Luna 15.

[KrisCochrane]

Mir and the ISS were and are two different stations.

[MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

Government: "You have 18 months to put a man on the moon!"
Me: "No problem, so long as he doesn't need to survive or return."

[chriszz]

7:45 it was also the fact that if he refused he would lose all of his military honors/status. So it's either suffer those consequences or sacrifice himself to make sure his family was taken care of

[chrisw.]

The ISS is NOT the first space station the Soviets launched, in fact, the ISS wasn’t even completed until the early 2000’s. The first Soviet space station was the Salyut.