The Moon Photos Britain Published First
When a Soviet probe sent back the first pictures from the surface of the Moon, a British radio telescope listened in, and a newspaper printed them before the Soviets did.
What was reported
On 3 February 1966, the Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the Moon. It began transmitting pictures of the lunar surface back to Earth.
At Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, Bernard Lovell's team was listening with its giant radio telescope. They realised the signal used the same standard format as newspaper picture transmissions, borrowed a machine from a newspaper to decode it, and the first photos from the Moon's surface appeared in British papers before the Soviet Union released them.
Explanations offered
The British version was slightly stretched, because the team didn't know the right picture proportions. The Soviets were reportedly annoyed. The images were important: they proved the Moon's surface was firm enough to land on, rather than a deep layer of dust.
- When
- 3–4 February 1966
- Where
- Oceanus Procellarum, on the Moon
- Witnesses
- Astronomers at Jodrell Bank and a London newspaper
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.