featured in the film 2000. on a space odyssey the u.s. mission to put a man on the moon was about to become reality. but the flight controllers on the ground were concerned that an unmanned soviet spacecraft was orbiting the moon at this time the probe was to land on the lunar surface and gather soil samples what's believed to a crashed into a mountain on july 21st. on the afternoon of july 19th apollo 11 swung into lunar orbit and the crew started making preparations for their descent to the moon surface.