The moon landing was President Kennedy’s dream. It was not about the destination, but the fulfillment of a dream. It was a mind-blowing moment to everyone in the world that was able to see the first person on the moon. This landing had changed the whole space race completely. Even now the moon landing still has people think about. The people who had a chance to live that moment are proud to be an American.
As the U.S. and the Soviet Union raced to space, they wanted to send people out to explore the unknown. “Certainly, the Apollo program was one side of a political contest, a surrogate for war.” said Roger D. Launius, “But it also stretched our imaginations and made us believe that anything we set our minds to we could accomplish.” The lunar landing was a new experience for everyone. People were amazed by this huge achievement that the U.S. had accomplish. It had plenty people talking about a new war and, yet it had change people minds.
Cheryl L. Mansfield article gave important dates and information of the U.S. space race timeline. As time passed by, the project Mercury was the first project to launch an American to space. Then NASA decided to build a facility just for the research on the Moon Landing. Later, a horrible accident occur with Apollo, in Jan 27, 1967 that killed three astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Then Apollo 8 did its first ever orbit around the moon in 1968. However, Apollo 11 was the most exciting it was the moon landing, that had changed the whole world completely. Apollo 8 and 11 were two significant moments that the people of the U.S. won’t forget. People were amazed by on how they made it possible to send someone to the moon and walk on it, but sad that the three astronauts that had died in Apollo 8 weren’t able to see the life changing moment.
The article “It All Started with Sputnik” described how the U.S. was falling behind in the race to space. When realizing that Soviet Union had launch the first ever orbital satellite, the U.S. created NASA it opened new opportunities for engineers and scientists to show what they have. Later, Homer Hickam explained how everything was going inside the space center. He described how the U.S. was trying to get in the lead by sending out satellites and rockets to space. Eventually, the U.S. did send the satellites and rockets, it proved that the U.S. also had the same technology and even more than the Soviet Union. Hickam also said that some people viewed the space exploration as a waste of time and money. However, with time passing by they were able to prove that all that effort and money that had gone to the space exploration was worth it with the moon landing. If it wasn’t for the Sputnik launch, the U.S. would have waited more longer to send people to space. It was a whole new experience for everyone, the idea of sending people to space was mind blowing. It changed people minds and people realize that everything is possible when there is effort and dedication. Roger believe that the moon landing was a political contest and a step closer to war. But also, expanded people imagination, to think outside the box. The moon landing had a lot of concerns, but it changed people’s mindset. They could do anything they want, now that they have seen it was possible to go to the moon. “President George W. Bush call on January 14, 2004 to reach the moon and mars during the next thirty years making clear that a belief in a limitless frontier in space still motivates us.” The quote says it all. Space travel is still something people think about and still want to do it, shows how people are still curious to see what’s out there.
In the Sixties, we sent a man to the moon; today, we sent a rover to mars. In July 20, 1969 a man was sent to step foot onto an unknown place. The moon landing had amazed millions of people in the country and around the world, it was something that people didn’t believe it actually happened. A person was sent to explore the grey rock that was seen every day, they wanted to see how it is up there and what it has to offer for everyone else. The trip was too explore and examine the wonders of the moon. On the other hand, in November 26, 2011 a Mars rover, also known as Curiosity, was sent to Mars to explore the planet. This launch was to see how planet Mars is in climate, if they could be life, and trace of living things. Even today, the rover is still working and doing what it was meant to do, to explore the unknown place like the moon. This rover has brought millions of information to know what has cause the planet to be the way it is now. Nonetheless, space exploration is something that will always amaze people, and there is always something new to explore out in space.
The Space Race was a huge impact to the world history. This topic was interesting to me because it was when the space exploration started. Without these two countries fighting to get to space first, they wouldn’t be any moon landing or the amazing technology. The Space Race is an interesting topic for everyone to know because it tells the story of two countries fighting for power and better ways to improve. During the process of this research I have learned new ways of putting important information together and creating an amazing paragraph. Also, when doing this paper, I did have trouble in finding credible articles that could of help me write a great paper. There are a lot of information that could have easily been false information. With this research paper I needed to read a lot of articles that would help me support my thesis. The amount of information that every article had it made it difficult to choose what was right for my research paper.
Work Cited
Mansfield, Cheryl L. “1960s: From Dream to Reality in 10 Years.” NASA, NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/history/timeline/60s-decade.html.
Launius, Roger D. “It All Started with Sputnik.” Air & Space Magazine, www.airspacemag.com/space/it-all-started-with-sputnik-17833591/?page=1.
Salvatore, Mark. “Curiosity Mission Updates - Mars Science Laboratory.” NASA, NASA, mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?mu=sol-1850-1851-a-change-of-scenery.
Dunbar, Brian. “United States-Soviet Space Cooperation during the Cold War.” NASA, NASA, www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/coldWarCoOp.html.
