On April 20, 1961, eights days after the Soviets propelled the first human being into space, just one day after the Bay of Pigs ended in America’s humiliation, President John F. Kennedy wrote a memorandum to the man who would one day succeed him, then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, outlining a series of questions to help shed light on the state of U.S. space exploration.
- Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?
- How much additional would it cost?
- Are we working 24 hours a day on existing programs? If not, why not? If not, will you make recommendations to me as to how work can bee speeded up.
- In building large boosters, should we put our emphasis on nuclear, chemical or liquid fuel, or a combination of these three?
- Are we making maximum effort? Are we achieving necessary results?
- Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?
- How much additional would it cost?
- Are we working 24 hours a day on existing programs? If not, why not? If not, will you make recommendations to me as to how work can bee speeded up.
- In building large boosters, should we put our emphasis on nuclear, chemical or liquid fuel, or a combination of these three?
- Are we making maximum effort? Are we achieving necessary results?
With that memo, Kennedy cranked up the ponderous mill of federal decision-making that would ultimately send the United States on its way to the moon, spend more than $25 billion of public money, harness the adventure and test the faith of some, arouse the doubt and anger of others.
As a matter of national conscience it had begun nearly three years and four months before John Kennedy took office. It was then that a bewildered but lethargic America watched as its own puny space rockets fizzled on the launch pads while the Soviet Union, supposedly a rural autocracy, seemed to fill the air with satellites.
October 4, 1957. Sputnik. A miracle and a threat all in one. Sputnik brought cries of shock from Congress, from Republicans and Democrats alike, shouts for action, for reappraisal, damning the American preoccupation with material things, with the height of a car’s tail fins, with the depth of pile on a new broadloom rug.
April 28, 1961, just another eight days after President Kennedy’s memo, the National Aeronautics and Space Council submitted a tentative report to the president. It said in essence: “The moon is a good target for us.”
- Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man? Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?
- How much additional would it cost?
- Are we working 24 hours a day on existing programs? If not, why not? If not, will you make recommendations to me as to how work can bee speeded up.
- In building large boosters, should we put our emphasis on nuclear, chemical or liquid fuel, or a combination of these three?
- Are we making maximum effort? Are we achieving necessary results?
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In 1961, it was clear that the Soviets had the upper hand in space. Four years earlier, Sputnik 1 had been hurled into orbit. Soon after, the United States began to make space exploration a priority of its own. President Kennedy, vowing to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, set plans in motion to surpass the Russians, who in 1961 became the first to successfully send a man into orbit around the Earth. But that was all about to change.
Immediately following Sputnik’s success, plans began for Project Vanguard with the goal of putting U.S. satellites into orbit — to catch up. Plans for Project Mercury, with the goal of putting U.S. astronauts into space, began the same year and successfully put U.S. astronaut John Glenn into orbit, February 20, 1962. This would set the stage for the final phase of fulfilling Kennedy’s dream, though he would not live to see it. Less than two years later, on November 22, 1963, the world would be rocked by Kennedy’s assassination. But a nation, so stricken with grief, would not be deterred.
Plans were already underway for Project Apollo. It began with the devastating Apollo 1 training mission that claimed the lives of all three crew members, Gus Grissom, Edward White II and Roger Chaffee, on January 27, 1967, just one month before the planned launch. Following safety improvements, the Apollo missions would resume with the speed and determination that would put a man on the moon just two years later. The name Apollo 1 was reserved for the flight that was never made by the lost astronauts, not forgotten.
- Astronaut Ed White moves away from his Gemini 4 capsule as his golden tether unreels from a black bag where it was kept until he emerged from the spacecraft, June 8, 1965.
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- Neil Armstrong, aboard Gemini 8, maneuvers his capsule toward the Agena Rocket, March 16, 1966.
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- Various Gemini missions blast off from Cape Canaveral. It was during these missions that the U.S. successfully maneuvered the transfer of astronauts from one craft to another, mid-orbit, laying the foundation for Apollo's two-module system.
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The moon, strange silver ball in the sky, full of romance and superstition, keeping the same face toward the earth as it circled, as if taking the measure of man, had become the focus of a nation’s pride.
Finally, in July of 1969, after eight years of transient triumph and recurrent despair, an American would set foot on the moon, the first human to test its sun-baked soil. In this lunar desert with its blinding white surface, its stark black shadows, American astronaut Neil Armstrong would plant a flag and thrill the world. It would be man’s first step into the starry night of space, to a kingdom he had always relegated to the gods. Now it was, as well, the realm of man.
By that time, the moon was no longer a total mystery. As Armstrong said, Apollo 11 would not be a flight into the unknown. The moon had been measured, compared and poked at. For all the small physical facts, there was a larger question that persisted. How did it all begin? Despite theories, this question remained unanswered as Apollo 11 readied for flight. It was part of the reason for going.
Thus in July, 1969, against the new images of her bleak craters and mountain ranges the world considered three men — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins — to reach out and touch the sky.
- Apollo 11 thrusts towards a rendezvous with the moon.
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- Apollo 11 blasts off to the moon from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
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- Thousands of newsmen and photographers line the banks of a lagoon at the Cape Kennedy Press Site on July 16, 1969, as Apollo 11 thunders from its launch pad three and a half miles away.
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- Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin lift off the launch pad at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
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- Immediately following Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin descends the steps of the lunar module ladder as he prepares to walk on the moon.
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- Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon.
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- Aldrin walks by the footpad of the Apollo 11 lunar module.
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- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface.
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- Aldrin carries scientific experiments to a deployment site south of the lunar module.
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- A section of Buzz Aldrin's panorama of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site, showing Neil Armstrong with the lunar module.
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- A footprint left by one of the astronauts shows in the soft, powder surface of the moon.
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- After an eight day mission to the moon, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean, about to be safely recovered by U.S. Navy helicopters on July 24, 1969.
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- U.S. Navy personnel, protected by Biological Isolation Garments, recover the Apollo 11 crew from the re-entry vehicle.
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- Apollo 11 crew boarding a recovery helicopter.
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- Neil Armstrong, center, is shown with his fellow spacemen, Edwin Buzz Aldrin, center, and Michael Collins in quarantine, July 27, 1969, Houston, Texas. The three would remain in quarantine to protect against any possible germs from the moon until August 10, 1969.
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- The Apollo 11 astronauts wave to cheering New Yorkers during a motorcade in midtown Manhattan, August 13, 1969. From left are: Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong. Among those in the car are United Nations Secretary General U Thant, seated to the right of Collins, and New York Mayor John Lindsey, seated below Aldrin and Collins.
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The trip back to earth was quiet and restful, if not quick. With hardly a problem, Columbia flashed through earth’s sky and splashed down in the warm Polynesian waters of the Pacific at 12:50 p.m. Thursday, July 24, eight days, three hours and 18 minutes after it took wing at Cape Kennedy, Florida. It landed just nine miles from the aircraft carrier Hornet and the eyes of President Nixon, on hand to greet the astronauts even if he could not shake their hands. They immediately went into the elaborate quarantine system, in which they would remain until August 11, to protect the earth from any possible contamination from germs on the moon.
Stretching endlessly beyond the moon is the ordered disorder of space. Nearest are the planets that keep earth company in shadowy orbits around the sun; and beyond them, the stars and the other solar systems of the Milky Way. And beyond, countless other galaxies yielding billions and billions of other suns. How far can man reach? How far does he dare dream?
Beyond Apollo 11 at least, 10 more men, Americans, would tread the lunar surface, the only ten in history. The future of space exploration, though dotted with sacrifice, would open doors to new understanding of life on earth and the mysteries beyond. Man would put the most powerful telescope into space, beyond the distortion of earth’s atmosphere. He would discover new states and forms of matter. He would even safely shuttle men and women to and from a space station hurtling at nearly five miles per second around the earth. And the future today puts man on Mars, and perhaps even further.