the americans won the race to land on the moon ten years before the russians.

the americans won the race to land on the moon ten years before the russians.

Its been more than 50 years since humans walked on the Moon ...

Only four countries have successfully landed on the Moon using a lander or impactor the United States Russia (formerly USSR) China and India. Put simply a lander is a spacecraft thats designed to land on the surface of a celestial body while an impactor is destroyed upon landing.

Sixty years ago this JFK speech launched Americas race to ...

www.cnn.com › 2023/05/25 › worldSixty years ago this JFK speech launched Americas race to ... www.cnn.com › 2023/05/25 › world CachedOverviewChanging the narrativeLanding man on the moonSixty years ago on May 25 1961 President John F. Kennedy wove his way through the congressional floor amidst a sea of members and took his place behind the lectern. Just five months into his presidency he was reeling from two political blows the first on April 12 when the Soviets sent cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space – getting a human into orbit before the Americans – and the second less than a week later with the botched Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. On the ropes the Kennedy administration needed a win. So the president stood and delivered a 46-minute nearly 6000-word speech that required 81 printed pages for him to read in a time before teleprompters. Against the backdrop of the Cold War the speech covered several topics including national security. But the most consequential announcement was reserved for the end. Kennedy looked out over the members of Congress and declared America‣s intention to go the moon. See full list on cnn.com The speech that propelled the US to the moon was almost presented as a written statement instead according to some reports. But internal documents provided to CNN by the JFK Presidential Library show the president‣s staff preparing for an in-person speech as many as 10 days before an event which they began referring to as a “second State of the Union.” According to an Associated Press story from the day of the speech Vice President Lyndon Johnson “told reporters he had urged Kennedy to deliver his message in person.” “The reality was the moon program was an attempt to change the subject” says Roger Launius NASA‣s former chief historian and author of “Apollo‣s Legacy.” One month earlier in a memo from Kennedy to Johnson on April 20 the president asked his VP if they had a “chance of beating the Soviets” by putting a lab in space orbiting the moon or even landing on it. “Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?” Kennedy wrote. “He needed to do something dramatic” says Fredrik Logevall professor of history at Harvard University. Kennedy and his team decided the drama would come from a lunar landing. “This was a weighty proposition and they spent a lot of time on (the speech)” he adds. “Ted Sorensen was the person who did most of the drafting.” See full list on cnn.com It was a big gamble that accelerated America‣s space timeline; after all in 1961 NASA had only existed for three years. “They were consciously a little bit vague about the deadline” Launius says. “What is the end of the decade? Is it 1969 or 1970? You can make a case for both … and so they felt quite frankly that they could have a little wiggle room of another year if needed.” The speech also set a precedent for NASA an agency dependent on government funding. “For the space community it has become really important” Launius says. “There has been and still remains inside the space community (this feeling) … that if we can get the president to announce a big goal all good things happen.” While the language of the 1962 Rice speech may be more memorable the first moon speech in 1961 forged a path for Apollo 11‣s successful landing just eight years later indeed before the decade was out. Over time history has assigned great significance to that nearly 46-minute address where it all began. See full list on cnn.com

The Space Race | Miller Center

The moon landing united the country with a sense of insurmountable pride. The United States had won the Space Race a competition more significant than any earthly battle. While Cold War tensions were in no way reduced American citizens regained confidence that they belonged to the “superior” nation.

Winning the moon race - Aerospace America

At 627 a.m. Eastern time a door opened and Neil Armstrong Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin exited the building and strolled past us — on their way to the moon. Just over three hours later at 932 a.m. I stood in the field in front of the press bleachers as the Saturn V carrying the Apollo 11 crew accelerated ever so slowly off of launch pad 39A.

The space race to the Moon | Science Museum

On 21 July 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon. It was a huge technological and human achievement. But why had the race to the Moon become such a focus and how did the Americans get there first? 1950s early space programmes International Geophysical Year commemorative booklet on display at the Science Museum.