Basically Space Age started on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. It was a surprise to the Soviets, which is weird...but whatever. Because of the launching of Sputnik 1 the Third World countries looked to the Soviet Union as more dominant compared to the US who had not launched anything, and were losing the Space Race. In response to this America created NASA. We also created ICBMs.
But in all reality the US won the space racce because we were the first to land a man on the moon. This happened on July 20, 1969.
This all began on July 16th when the Apollo 11 space flight was launched from Florida. It just so happened to be the 5th manned mission in NASA's Apollo Program. The commander of the Apollo 11 was Neil Armstrong, his Command Module Piolet was Michael Collins, and his Lunar Module Piolet was Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.
Aldrin, and Armstong finally landed in the Sea of Tranqulity 4 days later. It was a successeful landing, and was a moral booster to the United States, it also let us win the Space Race against the Russians who had only succeeded in launching things to the moon. Needless to say on July 21, 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the moon, uttering the famous words: "One small step for man, one giant step for man-kind." Their ship the Eagle spent 21 hours and 31 minutes on the moon while Collins above in the command ship named the Columbia.
The 3 men made it back to Earth successfully on July 24, 1969 with 47.5 pounds of space rocks. They then landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Like i said earlier the space landing was a moral booster to the US, but also fullfilled JFK's promise to the American people: That we will land on the moon before the Soviet Union and before the end of the 1960's. Following the Apollo 11 landing there were five other missions that were completed from 1969 to 1972.
I think that the moon landing is an amazing part of our history. Could you imagine if this never happened? The moon landing opened up alot of pathways for the United States, not to mention gave us confidence and allowed us to show other countries that we really were the best.
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