July 20, 1969
- Jul 20, 2023
- 2 min read
On this day in history in 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
A Race to the Moon
In the midst of the Cold War the world's two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, began the Space Race. A race to see which country would achieve supremacy of the skies by being the first to get a man in space, and then on the moon.
The Soviet Union 'won' the first part of the race as they were the first country to successfully launch a man into space. The next great step was to be the first to take a man to the moon. President JFK famously made this the country's mission with his speech on September 12, 1962. In it he declared the country would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. In his speech he stated, "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 we intend to win, and the others, too."
One Small Step for Man...
True to his word JFK supported NASA's efforts for space exploration. Although the Soviet Union was the first country to put a man in space with Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, the United States was second with Alan Shepard on May 5 that same year. The next step was landing a man on the moon.
NASA formed the Apollo space program with the goal of putting an astronaut on the moon. It made a total of 11 spaceflights and put 12 astronaughts on the moon. It also conducted scientific research on the moon and collected moon rocks to bring back to Earth.
The first Apollo mission in 1966 was an unmanned mission to test the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft. Though the test was successful the first manned test ended in tragedy when a fire broke out on the launch-pad, killing three astronauts. NASA remained determined and in 1968 Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth. Later that same year Apollo 8 took astronauts to the far side of the moon, orbited it 10 times, and then returned safely back to Earth. Apollo 9 and 10 continued testing and orbited the moon again.
...One Giant Leap for Mankind
It was Apollo 11 that would make history. It took off from Kennedy Space Center on the morning of July 16 with three astronauts aboard. They entered the lunar orbit on July 19 and the next day they landed on the moon's surface. That evening Neil Armstrong climbed down the lunar module's ladder, with a TV camera recording him and beaming back to Earth, and stepped foot on the moon with his famous quote: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The United States had successfully become the first country to land a man on the moon.
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