Moon Buggy DVD (Soviet Lunokhod I Space Rover)

This film is about the successful landing and operation capabilities of the first robotic space rover, the Soviet Lunokhod I, or Moon Buggy. The Soviet Space program got off to a fast start in the “Race to the Moon”, with the launching of Sputnik I, the first satellite, on October 4th 1957. One month later a much larger satellite, Sputnik II, this one carrying a dog named Laika was launched into Outer Space. From 1958-61, the Soviets launched six more earth-orbiting Sputniks, all of them larger and with better operational capacity than Sputnik I. The United States didn’t launch their first Satellite, Explorer 1, until January 31st 1958. Despite some setbacks, the Soviets continued to lead the US in outer space exploration by launching Luna I, the first rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. On April 12th 1961, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin shocked the world by becoming the first man to orbit the earth during the Vostok I mission. By contrast it took NASA (the US Space Program) two missions to accomplish what Gagarin did in one: Alan Sheppard piloted Freedom 7 in a 15 minute flight into Outer Space but it wasn’t until February 20th 1962, that John Glenn orbited the Earth on Friendship 7. Though the US ultimately won the “Race to the Moon” by landing astronaut Neil Armstrong on the surface on July 20th 1969, the Soviet Space program was responsible for the first soft landing of a photograph transmitting probe on the Moon’s surface (Luna I) on February 3rd 1966. The November 17th 1970 landing of the lunar rover, Lunokhod I, marked yet another first in aeronautic history. The Moon Buggy was a tubular structure with a large convex lid resting on eight wheels and equipped with two antenna, four television cameras, and special probing devices to measure and test the lunar surface.

USSR, 1971, Color, 25 minutes, English narration.

NTSC Region 0 encoding (Entire World)