How many missions were going to the Moon in mid-July, 1969? Apollo 11, of course. But there was another mission, a Russian one, which the Soviet Union hoped would capture the banner of lunar glory; especially if the Apollo mission failed. The story of Luna 15 is not a secret — but it is not well known, either. And in that story there was a role to play for Britain’s own astronomical crown jewel: the great radio telescope, now known as the Lovell Telescope, at Jodrell Bank.

I spoke to Sir Bernard Lovell, founder of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, who will be 96 next month, as we sat in the shadow of the telescope in Cheshire. He recalls that, while the glory of the Apollo landings eclipsed the work of the Soviet Union, it was the Russians who first sent a satellite round the Earth (Sputnik 1, launched October 4, 1957), the Russians who put the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1, launched April 12, 1961), the Russians who landed the first remote probe on the Moon (Luna 9, February 3, 1966).

When, in January 1969, the Soviet Union linked two manned spacecraft, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, Sir Bernard told The Times that he believed the Russians to have a four-year lead over the Americans. That may not have quite been the case; but it was a close-run thing, and at Jodrell Bank scientists could listen to the race first-hand.

Luna 15 entered lunar orbit on July 17, 1969: its mission to land a probe on the Moon, collect lunar soil, and return to Earth. “I was in fairly close touch with the Soviets and the Americans,” Sir Bernard says now. “My recollection of the race to the Moon is that the Americans were much more certain that they would land a man there; the Soviets always insisted that they would send a man to the Moon when they could be confident of getting him back.

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Sir Bernard Lovell tells Erica Wagner how he listened from Jodrell Bank to the drama, with the original audio from 1969

BACKGROUND

• DIY on the Moon: how Buzz saved the launch back to Earth

• Moon rock of ages

• Apollo Gadgets: Can you guess what they were for?

• The Moon: Gods, myths and legends

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“Now, the Americans on the other hand had doubled the safety margin for every serious event in the race, except for one — and that was the lift-off from the Moon. If that had failed there would have been an ultimate disaster.” (Buzz Aldrin, in his memoir Magnificent Desolation, writes of the moments before lift-off from the lunar surface: “The engines had to fire . . . we had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the lift-off failed.”) It was into this fragment of uncertainty that Luna 15 was flying. “They had promised the Americans that they would not interfere with Armstrong and Aldrin,” Sir Bernard says, “but Luna 15 was in orbit around the Moon at that time. And we were in close touch with that all the time. At the moment that Armstrong and Aldrin were due to lift off, the Soviets attempted to land their satellite: as it accelerated towards the Moon, the signals failed.” The satellite had crashed.

“Now, if they had succeeded and the Americans had failed, the political repercussions would have been enormous.

“Just as the signal was lost, I had a telephone call from the president of the Russian Space Academy and he told me that they urgently needed a copy of our records. I said, ‘Of course, I’ll arrange to put them in a diplomatic bag.’ And he said, ‘Oh no, no no: one of our representatives is already in the air, he’s flying to Manchester airport, can you arrange to hand over the details.’ And my chief engineer went out to the airport and handed them over.”

]He acknowledges the power of that Moon landing. “They’re a remarkable bunch,” he says of the Apollo astronauts. “I’ve met Aldrin and Armstrong — I was always surprised to find them quite ordinary human beings, but with an entirely different outlook. From Armstrong’s descriptions of the Earth from space — and indeed Gagarin’s — you could see it had the most enormous effect on them.”

He is glad that the days of the “space race” are over and that collaboration is now the rule. “These events are not national events; they are global events and should be treated as such. They’re so vast and so expensive that the whole science has become global.”

Indeed it has — and the work of Jodrell Bank remains at the forefront of science. Staff designed and built radio receivers at the heart of one of the major instruments on board the Planck satellite — the most sensitive receivers of their type ever built. Planck, a product of the European Space Agency, blasted off from French Guiana in May. The satellite will study the ripples in the cosmic microwave background radiation that led to the formation of the first stars and galaxies, looking back almost 14 billion years to the origin of the universe.

On July 19, visitors to Jodrell Bank, can celebrate the lunar landing at a “Moonbounce” event. Professor Colin Pillinger, who worked on the Beagle 2 mission to Mars and on the Apollo programme, will participate; as will Andrew Smith, the author of Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. There will be messages from Professor Stephen Hawking and Buzz Aldrin, and Sir Bernard will be speaking too.

The Apollo programme is long over — but 40 years on, Jodrell is listening still.

Tickets for “Moonbounce” can be booked through the Jodrell Bank visitor centre on 01477 571339. £4 for adults, £2 concessions. Advance booking recommended.

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