TheSpaceRace
"Ibelie vethat thi s natio nshouldcommi titself
to achievin g th e g oal,before thisdecadeisom,of
landing a mano nthe moonand returningh im
safely toearth."
Presiden tKenn ed y 'sp rop osal in May 196 1 th at
theUnited States shouldsen d a malltoth e moon
w as eagerl y welco med by politicia n s and the
American people.Soon wo rk hadbegunonthe
Apo llopro g ram :asthe proj ectwasnamed.
T he Apolio prog ram wasano th er move in the
"spacerace"betwe enthe Unite d States andthe
SovietUnio n.T hecostsofthisracewereenor-
mous.Butthereweretwoim po rtan t reaso nswhy
boththe Am er ica n s andtheRussianswerewilling
to pay the m. Fir st, there was [he qu estion of
in terna tional p restige - o f gaming th e respect of
th e rest of the world by ach ievin g so me thin g
callingforimmense scienti fican d technica lskill.
Secondly, b o thAm er icansand Russiansfcltthat
to let the o ther sideget to o far aheadIIIspace
tec hnologywoul d en da nger their security .Earth-
orbiting satellites coul dbe used to take spy
photogr aph s.More frighten ingst ill, rockets cap-
ableo f carrying peoplelIltospacecou ld also be
used to carr ynuclea rw arh eads.
Up to themid- 1960s each sidematched theot her's
achirvcmc nrs III th e space race. But th en the
Americanssta rted tod raw ahead. Fina lly , th ey
wereread yforth e m issiontoputthe first men 011
themoon-cApollo II.
T he Apo llo11 sp acecra ft was launched fr o mCape
Canaveralo nthecoast of Florida. Itcarri edthree
men asit screw~N eil Armstro n g,Ed w ard"Buzz"
Ald rinand MichaelC o lli ns .T he first t w owouldn ecessary theywould dro pnuclearbom bson the
SovietU nio n andChina.Hythem id - 1 950sthe
UnitedStateshada po werfu l forceofn uclear
bombersread ytod o this.O n airfields allround.the
world giantAmericanplaneswereconstan tl y onthe
alert. readyto takeofTata m o m ent's noti ce.
MostAmericanssupportedD ulles'smassive
retaliationpolicyatfirst.T hen , onO ctoher4, 1957 ,
the So vietUnionsent intospacethew orl d'sfirst29 AB.\LA N C EO fTE~ ~()~N eil .1 r"' 5IrmwOil,he"''''''I.pilot th e sect io nofthe spacecraft that would
actu ally land on them o on 'ssurface, the lunar
m o dule.C ollinshadthejobo f circlingthemoon
IIIth e ot he rsecti ono fthespacecra ft,thecomman d
m odule,waitingfortheir return.
The final countdown started fivedaysbefo reblast
offAt last,onJ uly16,1% 9.b urning4\12tonso f
fue la second ,ahuge5,000to n rocketrose slo w ly
fro m its launching padona roaringcolu m n of
flame.Fived aysla termillio n softelevisionviewers
allover theworld watchedArm strong andAldnn
step downallt oth e sur faceofth em oon.
The two menspent threehoursco llecting rock
sam ples and setti ng up scientificmstrurucnrs on
th emoon 's surfacetosendin form ati o nbackto
earthafter they left. Thentheyrej oined Co llins in
th e command m od u le. T h r eed ays later th ey
splash ed d ow nsafel y inthe Pacific O cean and
helicopters carr iedthemo ff to a h ero es"welcome.earth satellite, the Sputn ik.Sputnikd idnotworry
rhcAmerican s. Burtherocketth at carnedit into
sp aced id. Arocketpowerfulenoughtodothatcould
alsocarryan ll-bomb to it s target.
The Am ericangovernmentbegantospeedLIpw or k
onro cketsofitsown. Soonit had awholerang eof
bomb- carr y ingrocketscalled"nuclearmissiles."
The b igge stweretheInt er-C o nt inen ta l Ballistic
Missiles. T hesewerek eptinundergroundfortsall
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