[FPSPACE] "Ways to the Moon?" in ESA Bulletin 103

[Chris Jones]

Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com> writes:

  The European Space Agency (ESA) Bulletin Number 103
  for August, 2000 contains an article on the history of
  lunar exploration and the various plans for sending the 
  proposed LunarSat probe to Earth's moon.
  
  The article is available online in PDF format at this URL:
  
  http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/bulletin/bullet103/biesbroek103.pdf

This is a very interesting article.  A few nits which do not detract from the
main thrust of the article:

Luna 1 flew by the moon on 2 January 1959, not 1 February (obviously an
internationalization issue:  either 2/1 or 1/2 was decoded incorrectly).

Despite the fact that the US DoD designations for both launchers are SL-3, the
early Lunas were launched on a launcher with a somewhat different upper stage
than the Vostok launcher has (different engines).

Zond 5 didn't return to earth from lunar orbit, but after flying around the
moon without entering lunar orbit (unless what is meant is returning from the
vicinity of the moon's orbit).