The tensions between Russia and America reached a new high last Thursday when a Russian official demanded an international investigation into America’s moon landing on July 20, 1969.
“We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it,” wrote Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee. “But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened.”
The accusations appeared in Markin’s op-ed that attacked US officials for investigating FIFA officials on corruption and bribing charges. The investigation led to the downfall of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
The space race between Russia and America was one of the largest competitions of the Cold War. Russia beat America to space when the government launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. America quickly answered back with Explorer I in 1958. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed NASA specifically to dominate the world in space exploration.
Russia worked hard to pull ahead with Luna 2 in 1959, “the first space probe to hit the moon.” Then Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in 1961 in Vostok 1. America only lagged a little behind, but it did not stop President John F. Kennedy from declaring America would place a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
His dream came true when NASA launched Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and won the space race for America.
NASA admitted in 2009 the organization “erased the original video recordings of the first moon landing among 200,000 other tapes in order to save money.” But they did restore old copies and claim “the recordings’ quality is superior to the original one that has gone missing.”