Luna 9 And The Space Race

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During the 1960s the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in the “Space Race”. The spacecraft Luna 9 was initially the first soft landing on the moon.This accomplishment for the Soviet Union took place in 1966.As a matter of fact, if it was not for the hard work and the competition of the Soviet Union and the United States pushing for space exploration, this event would not have happened. The launching of Luna 9 took time and dedication from many people. Launching a spacecraft takes a lot of planning. Therefore, it took time for this mission to happen. They needed to plan the launching, how long it was going to take for the spacecraft to reach the moon, speed, direction and of course, how they were going to build the spacecraft, …show more content…

Therefore, there were many events that led up to the launching of Luna 9. According to the article, Humanity’s exploration to the moon, it states that in 1610 Galileo Galilei made the first telescopic observation of the moon. Later on, in 1645 Michael Florent van Langren made the first map of the moon. Therefore, both of these discoveries had encouraged the thought of space exploration. Then, almost three centuries later in 1920, Robert Goddard suggested sending rockets to the moon (Space.com staff). Many people took this into consideration and in 1957 the Space Race began. However, the Cold War began in 1945 and caused a conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1957 the launching of Sputnik, by the Soviet Union, initiated the beginning of the “race to space” (NASA). During this time period, it was the peak of the Cold War. The United States got involved in the Space Race in fear that the Soviet Union had better technology. This made the U.S. worried due to the face that they did not know if they were going to use this technological advancement in the war (NASA). The next year, in 1958 the United States launched its own satellite, Explorer I (history.com staff). The next launching was the launching of Luna 2, which was sent into outer space in 1959. The mission of Luna 2 eventually leads up to the launching of Luna 9 which took place in …show more content…

Shortly after Luna 9 was launched the Soviets launched Luna 10 making it the first spacecraft to ever orbit the moon. After a few months the United States made it first soft landing on the moon with the spacecraft Surveyor 1 on June 2, 1966 (space.com staff). In less than six months the Luna 9 spacecraft inspired two new spacecrafts Luna 10 and Surveyor 1. These two spacecrafts both had very successful missions. Soon after these successes Apollo 7, which was the first manned Apollo mission, it launches on a Saturn 1 for an 11 day mission orbiting around the Earth.This mission featured the first live TV broadcast from space(space.com staff). “Six years after U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Apollo 11 crew lands on the Moon, fulfilling his promise to put an American there by the end of the decade and return him safely to Earth”(Space.com staff). The United States could fulfill this promise that John F. Kennedy made to the World because of all the successes in the Space

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