THE NATION: Prestige Shot

"Attention, Moscow speaking," the announcer boomed, and his words were heard around the world. "Today, the 14th of September, at 00:02:24, Moscow time, the second Soviet cosmic rocket reached the surface of the moon. It is the first time in history that a cosmic flight has been made from the earth to another celestial body." The Soviet moon rocket, with a last-stage weight of 3,342 Ibs., treated against bacteria so as not to contaminate the surface of the moon, carried red pennants and a hammer-and-sickle emblem inscribed "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1959."

This new triumph of Soviet science (see SCIENCE), following almost exactly two years after Sputnik 1, showed that the U.S.S.R. is still ahead of the U.S. in the critical field of space. The U.S.S.R. fired two moon rockets into space, missed once, hit once; the U.S. fired five moon rockets, missed five times. The Soviet success, as such, gave the Soviet Union's Chairman Khrushchev, on the eve of his U.S. visit, perhaps the greatest prestige blast-off of all time.

The U.S., no less than the U.S.S.R., tingled with the news of man's new scientific leap beyond the earth's atmosphere. "We wish," said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "to congratulate our fellow scientists."