The Soviet rocket Lunik II has hit the moon, according to officials of the Moscow planetarium.
Earlier, the rocket was expected to strike the face of the moon at 15 minute past midnight tonight at 12.15 p.m. British summer time (2-31 a.m. IST, September 14).
Moscow Radio today gave the first hard confirmation that the rocket is due to land on the moon. but Soviet scientists warned that the impact would not be visible, even through the world’s most powerful telescopes.
Mr D. Y. Martinov, director of Moscow’s famous Sternberg institute of astronomy, said that a spaceship hitting the moon would have to be at least 200 yards in diameter for the landing to be visible from the earth.
But the rocket. launched yesterday morning, has been sending back continuous radio signals and if the signals suddenly cease it will be taken for granted that the rocket has thudded into the dust-laden surface of the moon.
It was expected to be travelling at about two miles per second when it hit the moon.