A Journey To The Moon
The Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for supremacy in space flight capability. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority.
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The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned probes of the Moon, Venus and Mars, and manned missions in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.
It had its origins in the missile-based arms race that occurred just after the end of the World War II, when both the Soviet Union and the United States captured advanced German rocket technology and personnel.
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‘We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.’
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September 12, 1962, President Kennedy delivered a speech describing his goals for the nation’s space effort.
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The Space Race
The project met all of its objectives with no fatalities by 1964, it saw more than 2,000,000 people from many major government agencies and much of the aerospace industry combine their skills, initiative, and experience into a national effort.
Project Mercury was the United States’ first manned space flight project, initiated in 1958. The objectives of the program, which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963, were specific: To orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth; to investigate man’s ability to function in space; to recover both man and spacecraft safely.
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John H. Glenn, JR became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. He was in orbit for 88 minutes, 29 seconds and orbited the Earth 3 times before landing safely in the Pacific ocean.
Alan Shepard was chosen for the first manned Mercury launch, becoming the first American to fly in space on May 5, 1961. The flight lasted just over 15 minutes.
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NASA named the Gemini spacecraft and program after the constellation Gemini. The name is Latin for “twins.� NASA used this name because the Gemini capsule would carry two people.
The general objectives of the program included: Long duration flights in excess of the requirements of a lunar landing mission; rendezvous and docking of two vehicles in Earth orbit; the development of operational proficiency of both flight and ground crews; the conduct of experiments in space; extravehicular operations; active control of reentry flight path to achieve a precise landing point; and on board orbital navigation.
The Gemini program was designed as a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo programs, primarily to test equipment and mission procedures in Earth orbit and to train astronauts and ground crews for future Apollo missions. Each Gemini mission carried two astronauts into Earth orbit for periods ranging from 5 hours to 14 days.
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Gemini 8 became the first spacecraft to dock with another in orbit on March 16, 1966. This event is a vital component to the success of traveling to and landing on the Moon in the future .
Edward White became the first American to perform a spacewalk (EVA) as part of Gemini 4. Along with James McDivitt Gemini 4 was in space for 4 days, 62-orbit from June 3 to June 7, 1965.
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At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.
The aim of the Apollo program was to land the first person on the Moon, but they also went beyond landing Americans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth. They included: Establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space; achieving preeminence in space for the United States; carrying out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon; developing man’s capability to work in the lunar environment.
The Apollo program was conceived early in 1960, during the Eisenhower administration, as a follow-up to America’s Mercury program. While the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, the Apollo spacecraft was to be able to carry three astronauts on a circumlunar flight and eventually to a lunar landing. The program was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the sun.
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Apollo 10 was a dress rehearsal for a lunar landing mission and was conducted in lunar orbit, but it excluded the actual landing. The crew of Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene Andrew Cernan conducted all propulsive maneuvers required for a lunar landing mission.
Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to achieve lunar orbit. Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, entered lunar orbit on December 24, 1968, and orbited the moon for ten revolutions (20 hours 7 minutes).
Jan. 27, 1967, NASA experienced its first space disaster - the deaths of three astronauts during a training exercise for the Apollo 1 mission; Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee. A spark inside the spacecraft ignited flammable material and instantly engulfed the closed compartment in flames.
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The lunar module took off from the Moon on 21 July and the astronauts returned to Earth on 24 July. As a precautionary measure, the astronauts were quarantined for 14 days.
During their stay on the Moon the astronauts set up scientific experiments, took photographs, and collected lunar samples. The lunar module (Eagle) spent 21 hours 36 minutes on the lunar surface, and the crew spent 2 hours 31 minutes outside the module in a local area excursion on foot to a distance of approximately 50m from the module (base)
Apollo 11 was the first mission in which humans landed on the Moon, walked on the lunar surface and returned to Earth. On 20 July 1969 2 astronauts (Apollo commander Neil A.Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin E, ‘Buzz’ Aldrin JR.) landed in the Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquility) on the Moon in the lunar module, while the command and service module piloted by Michael Collins continued in lunar orbit.
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Commander Nail A. Armstrong
Lunar Module Pilot Edwin ‘Buzz’ E. Aldrin, Jr.
Command Module Pilot Michael Collins
A Journey To The Moon