During the run up to the moon landing, the frantic race to get to the moon first created a propaganda war between East and West, as both sides determined to outshine the other. The Russian space agency was desperate to show the US how their technological success was way ahead of the emergent space administration and with its recent success photographing the lunar far side for the first time, it was keen to go one step further and successfully land on the moon.
Lunik II had crashed on the moon, depositing soviet pennants across the lunar surface and Lunik III, despite a near catastrophe on its way to orbit, had been a success, but other undisclosed missions and launches had been complete failures. The Soviet news agency TASS was not allowed to report any unsuccessful attempts and the russian space agency swept any information under the carpet. However, the west was able to discern that there had been other launchings, some of which had made earth orbit. The majority of early attempts either failed to launch properly, did not leave the atmosphere, or disappeared into space entirely. The press speculated wildly on the soviet activity and it was only when a mission was going well, that it was reported by the agency. The British radio telescope at Jodrell Bank was well placed to receive signals from russian satellites and had detected the error in Lunik III's course as it had journeyed to the moon, enabling western scientists a peek behind the iron curtain of soviet secrecy.
After Lunik III, the soviet space agency suffered major set backs, as despite having technically superior probes, mistakes in preparation, due to the hasty launch schedule, meant that the next five missions were regarded as abject failures and either downplayed, or completely covered up. Disagreements within the space agency and pressure from the Kremlin for positive results, meant the chief designer, Korolev had to deliver. The design for the lunar probe changed from an orbital reconaissance vehicle to a mechanism capable of soft landing and transmitting video and photographic images back to Earth. The americans had previously succeeded with their Ranger series probes, managing to crash land a capsule on the surface and the next step in the programme was nearing completion - the Surveyor programme, which would soft land a probe of the surface in advance of the manned landing some three years into the future.
The Lunik IX probe was a much more massive vehicle than its predecessors and was a two part probe, with a large descent stage and an egg-shaped landing capsule. At the end of January 1966, the massive launch vehicle took off and successfully delivered the Lunik IX probe into orbit around the moon, before making the descent toward the Oceanus Procellarum area. The main body was slowed by rocket engines and the capsule ejected, to make a soft, bouncing landing across the surface at a sedate 20 mph.
Once more, Jodrell Bank was well placed to receive the signals and the first photos of the moon from the actual surface were viewed on Earth.
Prior to the landing, there had been much speculation as to how the russians might achieve a landing and the limited amount of information which had been divined from the East, indicated that the probe would be far larger and heavier than earlier incarnations. Once more, the press speculated widely and this newspaper illustration from 1965 shows a vehicle which actually resembles the american Surveyor probe.
Without the veil of secrecy, information on US projects was much more widely available, with only the most important technical aspects withheld.
The Surveyor programme was the follow on from the Ranger Orbital Reconaissance probe and successfully landed a large probe on the moon, some three months after Lunik IX. Later iterations of the Surveyor were to include a small remotely controlled rover, but due to budgetary restrictions and the huge pressure to triumph in the space race, the programme was curtailed.
In 1970, following the moon landings and with the huge interest in all things space, the construction toy Meccano featured a Surveyor model on its catalogue 'For the Space Age'.