To the Moon and Back chapter sampler

The Space Race

invent anything. It was the Russians who put the first artificial satellite, Sputnik , into orbit in 1957. This provoked the then United States President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, into forming the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At that stage the American space budget was still limited, and their first three attempts at launching a rocket into space had disastrous results. The first rocket exploded just after launch in a searing fireball. The second one failed to reach the speed required to escape Earth’s gravity, so it burnt up as it fell back to Earth. On the third attempt the booster rocket failed, which spun the rocket back to Earth. Meanwhile, the Russian spaceship Mechta ( Luna 1 as it was also known) was the first man-made object to break away from Earth’s gravity. It was followed by an unmanned Russian spacecraft that actually crashed on the Moon, and yet another that orbited the Moon taking photos of its far side — the side that is always turned away from Earth. It wasn’t long before the Russians also sent the first man into space — Yuri Gagarin. The Americans — and the newly elected President Kennedy — were under pressure to catch up and do something spectacular to show the world that they weren’t going to be left behind. On 25 May 1961, President Kennedy announced: ‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,

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