The Apollo 11 Landing | A Kick Of History

 Hi everyone! Welcome to A Kick Of History! In today's post I will tell you the story of the Apollo 11 Landing! Before we get onto it, I just want to tell you that if you like my content please subscribe or follow my blog! Thank you so much, now let's get on with it! All my info is from this site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Mission

During the late 1950s to very early 1960s, the United States was part of the Cold War. The Cold War was a geopolitical rivalry against the Soviet Union. On October the 4th, 1957, the Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviet Union. The Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite put in space. This success fired the fears and imaginations of people around the world. It showed that the Soviet Union had the power to bring nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances. This meant that they could challenge the American claims of military, economic, and technological superiority. The action of the Sputnik reaching space, triggered something phenomenal. This action triggered what is now called, the Space Race.

President Eisenhower responded to the Sputnik by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA. He then launched Project Mercury. This project was set to put a man in Earth's orbit. But, on the day of April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, and the first person to orbit Earth. A month later, on May 5th, 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He completed a 15 minute suborbital journey doing this. After being recovered from the ocean, Alan received a congratulatory phone call from John F. Kennedy.       

                                         

Because the Soviet Union had higher lift capacity vehicles for launch, President Kennedy gave NASA a challenge. This was a challenge that was beyond the capacity of the generation of existing rocketry. This was so that the Soviet Union and the US would start from a position that was equal. The challenge that Kennedy gave was a crewed mission straight to the moon. On the day of May 15, 1961, President Kennedy addressed the US Congress on "Urgent National Needs." President Kennedy said, "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. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-term exploration of space; and none will be so difficult and expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations - explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who takes this daring flight. But 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."

 

In spite of this speech, the proposed program of landing on the Moon, faced much opposition by many Americans. It was even dubbed "moondoggle" by Norbert Wiener. He was a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the time. This effort of landing a man on the moon had a name: Project Apollo. When President Kennedy met with the Premier of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev, he proposed making the Moon Landing a joint project. But Khrushchev did not take up this offer. The idea of the joint mission was abandoned when President Kennedy died.

An early and very crucial decision was choosing the lunar orbit rendezvous over both direct ascent and Earth orbit rendezvous. In July of 1962 NASA head, James Webb confirmed that lunar orbit rendezvous would be used. He also said that Apollo would have three major parts to it: a command module (the only part that returned to Earth), a service module, and a lunar module. The design of this space craft meant that the space craft would be launched using on Saturn V which was under development at the time. 

Project Apollo was very abruptly halted though. This project was halted because of the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967. This fire sadly took the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chafee. On October 1968, Apollo 7 had evaluated the command module in Earth orbit. In December, Apollo 8 tested in lunar orbit. On March 1969, the Apollo 9 put the lunar module through paces in the Earth orbit. In May Apollo 10 conducted what was a "dress rehearsal" in lunar orbit. By July in the year 1969, all was ready for Apollo 11 to make the final to reach the moon. 

The Soviet Union competed with the US in the Space Race, but the early lead they had slowly diminished. This was because of repeated failures in the development of the N1 launcher, this was comparable to the Saturn V. The Soviets tried to beat the US to return lunar material to Earth by uncrewed probes. On the day of July 13, three days before the Apollo launched, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 15. This reached lunar orbit before Apollo 11. But during descent, on July 21, 1969 there was a malfunction and the Luna 15 crashed. This happened after the Apollo 11 landed on the moon on the glorious day of July 16, 1969.  

That's it my friends! The story of the Apollo 11 and how it landed! I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you all on the next one!