Shortly after midnight in Moscow, the Soviets became the first to successfully send a human-made object to the Moon.
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Walter Haut, the public information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, issued a press release saying that the military had recovered the remains of a ‘flying disc.’
Subsequent investigations revealed that a cabin vent valve had accidentally opened and depressurised the capsule when the service module was jettisoned at an altitude of 168 km, causing the crew to fall unconscious and suffer cardiac arrest in less than a minute.
In what Kenneth Arnold later complained was an ‘historic misquote’, the press coined the now-ubiquitous phrase ‘flying saucers’ to describe the UFOs.
The flight lasted for 15 minutes and 22 seconds and reached a maximum altitude of 116 miles before returning to earth for splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
The resulting emergency led to the calm announcement by the crew of, ‘Houston we’ve had a problem’.
Luna 1, also known as Mechta (Russian for “Dream”), was planned to crash into the Moon before which its range of instruments and communication were intended to study cosmic rays, solar wind, magnetic fields, and ionizing radiation.
Project Blue Book began in 1952 to systematically assess and analyse reports of UFOs, and accumulated data from 12,618 reports.
As Cernan prepared to climb the ladder of the lunar module at the end of the final moonwalk, he paused to deliver the words, “We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
Officially known as C/1680 V1, Kirch’s discovery soon became known as the Great Comet of 1680 and was visible for many weeks, growing to become the brightest object in the night sky and one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth century.
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