Apollo Missions: Beyond the Space Race

252 Words1 Page

The Apollo missions. What exactly was their purpose? At the time, It seemed more of an "I got there first!" than anything. The United States was deeply entrenched in the Cold War, along with the soviets and whoever else wanted to take sides, and the space race was just another one of their battlegrounds in an ever-expanding battlefield of ideals or was it? Maybe something truly was achieved when Neal Armstrong's voice echoed from our static filled televisions: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Maybe we won more than just bragging rights that day. As it turned out, we learned a lot from those missions, there was much more to it than just getting a man on the moon. We learned that the moon and the earth were very similar when it came to composition but there are enough differences that its formation can't have come from earth alone, the commonly accepted theory is called the gigantic impact theory, which explains the moon's formation by asserting that a celestial body, nearly half the size of the earth, hit the planet and cause the moon to break off and begin its orbit around the earth around 50 million years after the formation of the earth. …show more content…

Show More
Related

  • NASA Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said by Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the moon during the NASA Apollo 11 expedition to the moon. No man has ever been to the moon before and NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was the first to get someone to land on the moon. NASA has had many great accomplishments in exploring the "new frontier" that have affected the United States ever since it was first created in July 1958. The idea for NASA first started when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite on October 4, 1957. United States started up its own space travel program and started to work on its own projects that would be better in than the Soviet Union's. This all started the great space race. It was a big race between the Soviet Union and the United States to see who could learn and discover the most. The United States and Soviet Union started building and sending satellites and space ships. Then they tried to see who could make a suit and ship that would be able to allow a living thing to go up in space. They tested out all of the equipment with monkeys and dogs, seeing what would work. Many animals did die in the process but by the results of their testing they were able to build suits and ships that allow human beings to go up in space. Even though they were able to create these machines, that doesn't mean that they didn't have their difficulties and dangers. Two space shuttles were crashed or blown up. There were many key factors that they had learned to fix that resulted in the crashing of those ships. They have made many discoveries and accomplishments like having the first astronauts walk on the moon.

    Read More

  • Apollo 13's Impact On Space Exploration

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Apollo 13 Mission had a huge impact on space exploration. The Determination of the crew helped them return back to earth. People may think that Apollo 13 would have been a better success if they changed the launch date. Even though they failed at their goals the overall result was success. If they had changed the launch date NASA would have had more time to check the spacecraft and make sure that it was safe. If this event had not happened NASA wouldn't have learned how to make spaceships safer as well as space exploration and learn what to do in this type of emergency.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of NASA Funding On NASA

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    history. It managed to send the first human into orbit and to the moon. The discoveries, NASA have made in the recent decades have enabled us to have more knowledge of planets and stars, and resources way beyond this planet. In another hand, reasons as to why the U.S. Government should continue to fund NASA 's space program is a huge deal today. With the ideals that American tax dollars should be spent on more important things and that companies are now able to construct their own rockets that are able to send people on excursions into space, really is what challenges government support and true betterment of

    Read More

  • John Fitzgerald Kennedy - JFK

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... “of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth” The space program fascinates the American people. In the early 1960s whenever space flights were launched during school hours students would gather in gyms and auditoriums to watch the lift offs on television. The race to the moon continued through the 1960s. It is one of the nations single most expensive projects of the decade, costing $56 billion.

    Read More

  • Apollo research

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    My research paper will investigate the Greek God Apollo. The reason I chose Apollo was I have never had a chance to look into other Gods or Goddess’ other than Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. The next seven paragraphs are paraphrased depictions, stories and relational information directly related to the god Apollo The information was compiled by author: Atsma, Aaron J., on the website: Theoi.com. Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 – 2011. 12 May 2014. Each paragraph is a separate encyclopedia reference and is noted in the following footnotes reference.

    Read More

  • Apollo 11: Historical Turning Point In History

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    A turning point in history is when NASA launched Apollo 11. Apollo 11 is a spaceflight that was launched in 1969, and landed the first humans on the moon. Neil Armstrong, one of the spacemen, explained the event as, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The reason this was a historical turning point is because the mission represented the dreams and capabilities of the human mind, and led a lasting change on history.

    Read More

  • Space Race in the 1960's

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1960’s were full of questions, and one of the biggest questions the world was pondering about was regarding the Space Race: was the USA going to beat their communist enemy, the Soviet Union? The Space Race was a series of events that helped to symbolize and determine in the worlds’ eyes which form of government was better, communism (Soviets) or democracy (United States)? In the beginning of the race, the Soviets had the lead, and it was not looking good for America. Then the United States picked up the pace and spent well over eight billion dollars funding the space studies. This period of time made many scientists and astronauts heroes in the eyes of Americans. The Space Race was a combination of determination, intelligence, space projects, and American pride, all used to reach our exploration goals and surpass the Soviets.

    Read More

  • Space Exploration in the 1980s

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    Space travel began in the 1960s with sending humans on single missions into space. Rockets launched into the air and just the tip would land in the ocean after parachuting back to Earth ("Space Shuttle Program," par. 4). The focus of space exploration changed during the 1980s; shifting from the desire for human space flight to the desire to create a reusable spacecraft. Originally called Space Transportation System (STS), NASA created the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) (Heiney, par. 1-2). It wanted a shuttle that was more economical because it could be launched, landed and relaunched and could gather better information. The 1980s began a new era in space exploration and had one the biggest tragedies in the history of space travel.

    Read More

  • Apollo 11 Mission Impact

    2886 Words  | 6 Pages

    The success of Apollo 11 which included the historic presence of the first humans on the moon signified the greatest extent of human intellectual advancement. Apollo 11 was part of a larger project known as the Apollo Program, comprised of a large number of unmanned test missions and 11 manned missions. The Apollo Program was intended to land humans on the moon and safely return them back to Earth. Of the 15 missions executed, six resulted in success to date. The concept of space expedition was initially sparked by the Russian launch of satellite Sputnik during the Cold War. The launch induced the creation of NASA’s first human spaceflight program called Project Mercury. A portion of the United States saw the launch as beneficial, as it established the need for the country’s advance, whereas others were concerned about what the Soviet Union will make out of this achievement. The first successful manned space expedition executed was Apollo 7, which had a tremendous influence in the outcome of the subsequent missions. Various other missions were performed before the launch of Apollo 11, some of which were unsuccessful such as Apollo 1, whereas others, like Apollo 7, had prospered in assisting in the success of Apollo 11. During the momentous mission, the participants, Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin, fulfilled their roles effectively. With the actions of those that participated in the mission, the United States was able to leave a physical mark on the uncharted territory thought to have been far beyond human reach.

    Read More

  • The Space Race

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...faster than the Soviets during the Space Race. The Americans only accomplished one mission faster than the Soviets, where as the Soviets accomplished three missions faster that the Americans. But the only reason that the topic of putting a man came up was because the Americans were embarrassed at being behind the Space Race. In 1961 President Kennedy went to congress and announced that he wanted to be the first to put a man on the Moon so that they could at least win one mission against the Soviets. One thing the Americans did was give credit to all of mankind because of what Neil Armstrong said, “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Even though they were losing the space race they still believed that everyone should get credit for this accomplishment. So, The Soviets won because of many more accomplishments during the Space Race.

    Read More

  • Apollo 11: The Greatest Achievement in Human History

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    “On July 16, 1969 the world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon.” (news.nationalgeographic.com). This was the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the first successful manned mission to the moon. This mission was the product of the space race (race to see who would go into outer space first, against the Soviet Union). This goal was set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 and he promised that we would be the first to step on the moon by the end of the decade. The Apollo 11 mission is often cited as the greatest achievement in human history. (news.nationalgeographic.com)

    Read More

  • The Moon: The Formation Of The Moon

    1516 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are five basic theories in the formation of our moon. The first is the "fission theory" which states that the moon was once a part of earth, but separated a long time ago. The second theory is called the "capture theory". This theory is says that the moon formed somewhere else, and was "captured" by earths gravitational pull. The third theory is called the "condensation theory" this theory states that the moon and earth were condemned together from the original nebula that formed our solar system. The fourth theory called the "Colliding Planetesimals Theory" states that the interaction between the earth orbiting the sun, and the sun orbiting planetesimals, which are large Astroid like rocks, led to the breakup and formation of our moon from the debris of these planetesimals. The fifth and final theory is called ...

    Read More

  • Apollo Program: First Human Being To Step On The Moon

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the most important events that made history was the Apollo program accomplishing the landing of the first human being to step on the Moon. When the Apollo was first declared in 1961, only two human beings had already been in space. Beginning the mission to the moon, scientist had to construct a rocket ship powerful enough to travel to the moon, and a spacecraft that could return back to earth. The rocket that was constructed for this mission was called the Saturn V rocket. With 13 successful launches, the Saturn V rocket carried the Apollo craft into Earth orbit. The initial start of the Apollo 11 mission began July 16, 1969 with the liftoff of the Saturn V rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours,

    Read More

  • Facts about Earth's Moon

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...lieve that millions of years ago, a piece of rock as big as Mars hit the Earth, and the collision blasted a huge amount of rock into space, and the shattered pieces of rock went into orbit around the Earth. Over millions of years, the rocks clumped together to form the moon, and now it is not the pieces of rock that orbit the Earth, but the moon itself. Scientists, Native Americans, and many other people have their theories of how the moon became, but none have been proven. Scientists have studied the moon for many years, and have proven many theories, but not this one.

    Read More

  • Moon Landing

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...erful for social objectives. Technology, especially in aerospace engineering and electronic communication, advanced greatly during this period. Today over a thousand artificial satellites orbit earth, relaying communications data around the planet and facilitating remote sensing of data. The moon landing stood for a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown. To win the Space Race we had to be the first to land a man on the moon and for that moment in the tumultuous 60’s, our country came together in celebration and pride. The citizens of the U.S made the journey possible; through their contributions to the space effort, or even if they just supported the effort they were helping the cause. John F. Kennedy requested, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” We responded, we prevailed, we triumphed.

    Read More

More about Apollo Missions: Beyond the Space Race

Open Document