'Giant leap' opens world of possibility
July 20, 1969: Man lands on the moon
Friday, July 16, 2004 Posted: 4:45 PM EDT (2045 GMT)
Buzz Aldrin poses on the moon for a picture taken by fellow astronaut
Neil Armstrong.
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(CNN) -- Thirty-five years ago, two Americans landed on the moon,
taking the human race to another body beyond Earth for the first time.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, piloting the Eagle landing module,
touched down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, on July 20, 1969. A
third U.S. astronaut, Michael Collins, was in the orbiting command
module overhead.
"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," said
Armstrong.
The words were seared into the memories of the 600 million some
people -- about 1/5 of our planet's population -- who watched the
broadcast transmitted from the lunar surface.
"For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, the people of
this Earth are truly one," said President Richard Nixon.
Accolades poured in from around the world. New Zealand Prime Minister
Keith Holyoake said: "The impossible is only that which takes a
little longer to do."
And for a time it seemed the impossible was just the beginning.
Ambitious space experts and political leaders planned lunar colonies,
space stations and Mars expeditions. For them, the footprints left by
the astronauts in the soft, gray lunar soil were merely baby steps
toward a greater destiny in the cosmos. Man would finally become a
space-faring species.
"The federal government was seen as key toward innovation and
technological progress, by defining what's essentially civilian, like
the space program, as a government endeavor," said Allan Needell,
curator of Apollo exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum.
However, that vision of exploration clashed with troubles at home.
In the summer of 1969, political and social turmoil ravaged the
United States. Many struggled to come to grips with the
assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader
Martin Luther King. Riots rocked some of the nation's largest cities,
while rising casualties and horrific images out of Vietnam fueled
anti-government demonstrations.
Yet for eight days, the Apollo 11 mission transcended those concerns.
"There were racial, economic and social divisions -- strains that
were very real and very important," said Needell. "[The moon landing]
was the culmination of forces that brought everyone together to
pursue a common goal."
'The Eagle has landed'
On July 16, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins climbed into the Apollo.
The unit's Saturn V rocket, equipped with the most powerful engines
ever built, blasted them into space.
Their trajectory took them around Earth and toward the moon when a
third-stage rocket fired. Two modules -- the Eagle, for landing, and
the Columbia, a command and service center -- entered the moon's
orbit July 19.
Armstrong and Aldrin left several footprints in the soft, gray lunar
soil.
A day later, Armstrong navigated a course that included a potentially
deadly crater and boulder field before successfully touching down in
flat terrain.
"Houston, Tranquility Base here," he said. "The Eagle has landed."
Armstrong, soon joined by Aldrin, spent 21 hours on the lunar
surface. The two sampled rocks, surveyed terrain, set up experiments
and famously planted an American flag in the soil. A plaque they left
read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon.
July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."
The pair then re-entered the Eagle, reuniting with Collins and the
Columbia module before returning home by splashing down in the
Pacific Ocean.
Within six months, the United States had landed a second team of
astronauts on the moon. For the next three years, at six-month
intervals, NASA sent more manned missions to the moon. The sixth and
final one, Apollo 17, left the moon December 14, 1972 -- the last
time humans set foot on another celestial body.
Path to the moon
Apollo 11, and the six subsequent lunar missions (except for Apollo
13, during which U.S. astronauts averted disaster but returned home
without setting foot on the moon), marked a stunning climax after
years of tribulations and smaller successes.
The U.S. space program, under the Pioneer and Ranger missions, made
repeated attempts to hurl a satellite toward the moon starting in
1958. The first 10 U.S. robotic missions to the moon failed due to
booster rocket misfires, faulty computers and other malfunctions.
On July 28, 1964, Ranger 7 finally succeeded. The craft beamed 4,316
images back to Earth before crashing on the lunar surface. More fly-
bys and reconnaissance missions followed, paving the way for Apollo
11.
Aldrin descends the ladder of the Eagle landing module before
touching down on the moon.
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins' mission was a stunning victory for the
United States in the so-called "space race" with archrival the Soviet
Union.
By 1961, Soviet scientists had launched the first satellite (Sputnik
I) into orbit, sent the first animal (a dog named Laika) into space,
and made the first human spaceflight with Yuri Gagarin's Earth orbit.
Less than ten months after Alan Shepard became the first American in
space -- making a 15-minute, 28-second suborbital flight -- the
United States finally matched Gagarin's feat on February 20, 1962,
when John Glenn orbited the Earth aboard the Mercury-Atlas 6 capsule.
But, by then, America had been issued a challenge.
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the
goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to Earth," President Kennedy told Congress in
1961. "If we are to go only halfway, or reduce our sights in the face
of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all."
He asked for $531 million in 1962 and at least $7 billion over the
ensuing five years, and the nation's determination to prove America's
scientific superiority.
"In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon -- if
we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For
all of us must work to put him there," he said. "For while we cannot
guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any
failure to make this effort will make us last."
Congress and the American people rose to the challenge. NASA quickly
regained lost ground, mounting manned missions above Earth by 1961
and making final preparations for a lunar landing by 1968.
"Basically, we upped the ante," said Needell.
Apollo's legacy
In January 2004, President Bush unveiled an ambitious plan to return
Americans to the moon by 2020.
"Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once
drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea," said Bush. "We
choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts
our national spirit."
But this time Americans did not embrace the plan, and critics claimed
funds for the costly initiative should be spent on domestic programs.
The astronauts planted a U.S. flag on the moon, but did not claim the
body as American territory.
This response, said Needell, speaks to the unique factors that led to
the Apollo missions' success -- as well as the fact that humans
haven't returned to the moon in nearly 32 years.
"After the Apollo program, NASA was not able to sustain that level of
commitment, because the impetus was no longer there," he said. "We're
a decentralized country with lots of interests, and it's very
difficult to maintain that focus or direction."
The vast resources devoted to the Apollo program produced spectacular
results, but such largess was not to be repeated, relegating the
lunar missions to part of NASA's "Golden Age," according to space
historian Roger Launius.
The space shuttle fleet, launched with great hope of opening up
space, has proved even more expensive than the Saturn rockets that
propelled astronauts to the moon. In an ironic twist, the shuttle
fleet's grounding following the Columbia accident has forced American
astronauts to fly Russian Soyuz rockets developed at the height of
the space race.
Nearly three decades later, visitors still flock to the Apollo-
related exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
D.C., reflecting the inquisitive spirit Bush alluded to: the desire
to investigate, learn and discover new things and places.
"Many people saw [the Apollo landing] as adding to the tradition of
Western expansion and the new frontier," said Needell. "There is a
strong cultural thread in America seeking exploration and fulfilling
man's destiny."
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