JODRELL BANK, England -- Jodrell Bank tracking station said today indications were Russia's Luna 15 satellite has landed on the moon.
A spokesman at the station said Jodrell Bank's giant dish antenna detected a rocket blast that evidently was intended to drop the craft out of orbit down toward the lunar surface.
Luna 15 apparently landed on the moon near the Sea of Tranquility -- the vast, desolate plain where America's Apollo 11 astronauts came down Sunday -- at 11:50 a.m. EDT today, the spokesman said.
There was no indication immediately how far Luna 15 was from the U.S. Eagle.
Shortly after Jodrell Bank's antenna detected a change in the Russian probe's orbit, a spokesman said, "The brakes are still on and it is not quite on the lunar surface yet."
Then, minutes later, Sir Bernard Lovell, head of the Jodrell Bank facility, said he thought Luna 15 was landing.
