Soviets almost land on the moon

[Capt_Redfox30]

Really interesting Audio recordings of how the Soviets almost beat Apollo 11 to landing on the moon in July of 1969.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/luna-audio/

[O-Rex]

With the space-race over and the cooperation and integration of Americans & Russians on shuttle and soyuz flights, I find it interesting that we have adopted some of their technology and techniques.  Remember that while we were basking in earthlight on the moon, the Russians refocused on long-duration flight, and got pretty good at it.

Look at the technology coming out: new EVA suit will have a rear-entry hatch in the PLSS unit like the ones the Russians have been using for almost two decades.  the landing system for the Orion spacecraft is land-based using braking rockets upon landing much like soyuz employs.

I've seen some of the hardware that was developed by the then-Soviets for the moon landing: it would have been very interesting to have seen it in use (AFTER Apollo 11, of course!)