The Soviets were indeed planning a mission around the Moon, but with a crew of plants and small animals, including a pair of tortoises, rather than cosmonauts. This would give the initiative back to the US and with it the necessary political momentum to try soon for an actual landing. This mission would aim to send three astronauts around the Moon.Īfter feverish consultation across NASA, the outgoing Administrator James Webb decided to proceed with the Saturn V mission. The choice was between sticking with the Apollo mission schedule to test the lunar lander-which wasn’t ready-or to go ahead with the inaugural manned flight of NASA’s own rocket, the Saturn V. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts-Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.-realized President Kennedy's dream.By summer 1968, with the Apollo programme near to returning to flight, the senior management of NASA was faced with a dilemma: intelligence suggested the Soviets were near to launching a massive rocket, probably to the Moon. Its goal was to land humans on the Moon and assure their safe return to Earth. Its goals were to perfect the entry and re-entry maneuvers of a spacecraft and conduct further tests on how individuals are affected by long periods of space travel. The Apollo Program followed Project Gemini. Project Gemini was the second NASA spaceflight program. To the MoonĪs space exploration continued through the 1960s, the United States was on its way to the Moon. Each mission lasted longer than the one before and gathered more data. By May 1963, astronauts Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra Jr., and L.
Medical researchers, engineers, test pilots, machinists, factory workers, businessmen, and industrialists from across the country worked together to achieve this goal. Glenn's success helped inspire the great army of people working to reach the Moon. After more than four hours in space, having circled the earth three times, Glenn piloted the Friendship 7 back into the atmosphere and landed in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Friendship 7 capsule carrying Glenn reached a maximum altitude of 162 miles and an orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour. It was a dress rehearsal for the manned landing to come. In May of 1969, Apollo 10 orbited the moon, testing the lunar lander. They found it desolate and gray, but saw nothing to prevent journeying the final 62 miles to the surface. became the first American to orbit Earth. For the first time, people gazed on the moon from orbit. Within a year, however, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom became the first two Americans to travel into space. Skeptics questioned the ability of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to meet the president's timetable. On May 25, 1961, he stood before Congress to deliver a special message on "urgent national needs." He asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth." President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation's lagging space efforts. President Kennedy understood the need to restore America's confidence and intended not merely to match the Soviets, but surpass them. The United States, it seemed, was still falling behind. Then, in 1961, the nation suffered another shock when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. Project Mercury's goals were to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth, investigate the ability of astronauts to function in space, and recover astronauts and spacecraft safely. Seven men were selected to take part in the program: Scott Carpenter, Leroy Gordon Cooper, John Glenn Jr., Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., and Donald "Deke" Slayton. The Soviets' triumph jarred the American people and sparked a vigorous response in the federal government to make sure the United States did not fall behind its Communist rival.Ī new space program, Project Mercury, was initiated two years later, during President Dwight D. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, and the space race was on.
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