![]() Color TVs were just making their way into people’s living rooms. passenger jets had been around for only a few years. NASA had only just recently launched an astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space for the first time. It felt impossible because that distance equals about nine-and-a-half loops around Earth. To many, being able to send someone to another world 240,000 miles away within nine years seemed ridiculous. should “commit itself,” he said, “to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Kennedy stood before Congress and delivered a bold proclamation. Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, had even used the country’s early successes in space to claim that “economy, science, culture, and the creative genius of people in all areas of life develop better and faster under Communism.”ĭesperate to prove that capitalism and democracy were paramount, Kennedy told NASA’s administrator, James Webb: “Everything we do ought to really be tied into getting onto the moon ahead of the Russians.” had been trying to catch up, and many questioned whether it was falling behind its Communist rival technologically. Ever since the Soviets had launched the satellite Sputnik in 1957, triggering the space race (see Timeline, below), the U.S. Color TVs were just making their way into people’s living rooms, and personal computers wouldn’t become common in homes for another three decades.īut Kennedy believed the times demanded an ambitious goal. NASA had only just recently launched an astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space for the first time, and U.S. To many, being able to send someone to another world 240,000 miles away (a distance equal to about nine-and-a-half loops around the Earth) within nine years seemed ridiculous-if not impossible. should “commit itself,” he said, “to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” That’s when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. ![]() took the top prize in the race 50 years ago this summer. That conflict was a broader struggle between the two world powers for political and military dominance. The original space race was between the U.S. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in April that it aims to do so within a decade.Īll of these moon missions have people talking of a new space race. Since taking office, President Trump has vowed to send astronauts there for the first time since 1972. is still the only nation ever to send people to the moon’s surface. Two more moon missions are scheduled for later this year, one by India and another by China. If Israel had been successful, it would’ve been only the fourth country to land an object on the moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. The spacecraft appeared to crash on the moon. In April, Israel attempted to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. That’s the part of the moon that isn’t visible to people on Earth. It landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. In January, China achieved something no other nation has ever done. ![]() How did that first lunar landing come about-and why, 50 years later, are countries once again racing to the moon? ![]() took the top prize in the race 50 years ago this summer when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. and the Soviet Union, was part of the Cold War-a larger struggle between the two world powers for political and military dominance. The original space race, between the U.S. Since taking office, President Trump has vowed to send astronauts there for the first time since 1972, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in April that it aims to do so within a decade.Īll of these moon missions have people talking of a new space race. The U.S.-still the only nation ever to send people to the moon’s surface-is also rushing back to the moon. (The spacecraft appeared to crash on the moon.) Two more moon missions are scheduled for later this year, one by India and another by China. In April, Israel attempted to become only the fourth country, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China, to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. In January, China achieved something no other nation has: It landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, the area that’s not visible to people on Earth. ![]()
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