Russia’s Moon Crash ‘Speaks Volumes’: A Storied Space Program Falls Short. Again – Analysis

By Mike Eckel

(RFE/RL) -- On August 18, 1976, a 4-meter-high spacecraft called the Luna-24 touched down on the Mare Crisium, a flat plain in the moon’s northern hemisphere. Four days later, the Soviet-built vehicle returned to Earth, carrying a valuable sample of lunar soil, a portion of which Soviet scientists later...