Ben Cripe
Mrs. Bundy
English 9X
25 February 2014
Kennedy and The Race to Space
The United States lunar landing was one of the largest milestones in American history. John F. Kennedy was very influential in the lunar landing. Before the U.S reached the moon, they had to go through many obstacles. These obstacles not only made the U.S stronger, it made them more determined to get to the moon. The United State's main competitor in space travel was the Soviet Union. The race to space was a competition between the Soviets and the United States. The three main American missions were Project Mercury, The Gemini Project, and the Apollo Mission.
The Soviet Union launched a satellite in 1957 called Sputnik to begin the race to space. In response to this, President Eisenhower's administration initiated Project Mercury in 1959. This project consisted of a man riding in a capsule atop a red stone rocket. Three main objectives were chosen for this mission. The first objective was to place a manned spacecraft in orbital flight around the earth. The second objective was to assess mans ability to function in space. The third, and final, objective was to recover safely the man and the spacecraft.
Seven men were selected for Project Mercury. The men were called the Space Task Group (STG). The STG were introduced to the American public in a press conference as the first American astronauts. These men were all of normal build, had families, and all were engineers.
During the Mercury Project John F. Kennedy was elected President. Unlike his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kennedy was enthusiastic about the space program. During his campaign speeches, he talked about America's "space gap". Even though Kennedy was enthusiastic about space, he...
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...ssassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
After the death of Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was immediately elected President on the same day. At the time, Kennedy and Khrushchev were building up a good relationship. However, the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, did not have a good relationship with Khrushchev. As a result, Khrushchev dropped the idea of a joint moon program between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
Working by themselves, the U.S initiated Project Gemini. This project would be the connector between Project Mercury and Apollo. The objective of Project Gemini was to develop space travel techniques in support of the Apollo program. All Gemini flights were launched from Cape Canaveral similar to Project Mercury. There were many missions for project Gemini ranging from the years 1962 to 1966.
In the 1960s the Cold War was at its peak, with both the USSR and America trying to spread their ideologies onto the rest of the world. The world was still uneasy due to the Korean War. In the public’s eyes, nuclear Armageddon was only a press of a button away. The Space Race was a welcome peaceful distraction for the world. The USSR and the United States were constantly trying to best each other in celestial exploration. In 1962, American President, John F Kennedy announced to America that by the end of the decade America would land a man on the moon. Kennedy carefully chose the audience and language of his speech to convince the public to support the Apollo Moon Program.
"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.
Kennedy had realized that the only way to overtake the Soviets after falling so far behind, would be by putting the first man on the moon. The US morale had taken a serious blow following Sputnik and the first cosmonaut in space, Yuri Gagarin. On September 12th, 1962, Kennedy delivered his famous speech, saying “We choose to go to the moon.” Kennedy knew that it was essential to gather support behind a manned mission to the moon from the American public. Although many argued that it would be easier, and more efficient to send an unmanned mission to the moon, it was more about the morale boost and the message a man on the moon would send to the
On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong planted the first human footprints in the lunar soil. The United States had accomplished their goal in sending men to the moon. They managed to not only send them 238,857 mi. (384,403 km) into space to our neighbor celestial body, but also send them back with a successful flight to our mother earth. This seems like a difficult task for a country that was behind Russia in space exploration at the time.
During the time of domestic war at home and foreign relations concerns, the United States of America experienced one of the greatest time periods in American history which was during what people called the "Camelot" period. This occurred when the 35th President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was in office and he initiated a period of social development which overcame major differences between Americans and the rest of the world. President Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961 and became the second youngest and first Catholic president of the United States. This new president initiated a series of new changes in the country, from which he became an inspiration to many Americans, as he is still remembered for his idealism and courage. He was the leader of the Democratic party and won the election by 49.7% of the votes. Kennedy was seen as an intellectual young man who's beautiful wife helped his political image. JFK initiated many programs to help improve American society. Kennedy was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights of African- American citizens along with the other leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks who were becoming the voice of these American minorities. He commenced the creation of the Peace Corps to the New Frontier Program. Kennedy also worked on reforming U.S. immigration and made the commitment to win the space race before the Russians. Kennedy focused on Russian-American relations during the Cuban Missile Crisis and as the risks of a nuclear attack increased, Kennedy signed a treaty with the Soviet Union preventing the use of nuclear weapons. One of the most famous quotes that JFK is known for is: "Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country" . His ...
President Kennedy made this speech because of significant political pressure. Both his administration as well as the country as a whole had been subjected to a string of space related embarrassments by the Soviet Union. They were the first nation to launch a satellite into space (Sputnik-1, October 4, 1957), the first to put an animal into space (Sputnik-2 with the dog Laika aboard, November 3, 1957), the first to land a probe on the moon (Luna-2, September 12, 1959) and the first to place a man in orbit (Vostok-1 with Cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin aboard, April 12, 1961)1. President Kennedy knew national pride was on the line so he used the opportunity to push for the most ambitious (and expensive) project since the Panama Canal and th...
Samuel Crompton says,”Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition.”(Crompton 56). The real reason that the United States joined the Space Race was to compete with the soviet union. JFK makes this very clear. The Soviets were ahead of us and this was unacceptable, being behind technologically was detrimental to morale.The Cold War wasn’t really a war at all. It was just an arms race, the space race was just an extension of the arms race. It was never really intended to have any scientific, technological, or strategic benefits. Dwight D. Eisenhower may have planned for the space program to focus on science, but when kennedy took the office he used NASA as a piece of propaganda. He never had any intention of using the space program for research. When Kennedy was first deciding whether or not to create a space program he sent a memo to his vice president Lyndon B. Johnson asking him to research a few things. None of JFK’s questions had anything to do with science or technology. They were all about the Soviet Union 's space program. The first questions was, “Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket land on the moon, or by a rocket go to the moon and back with a man.”(Kennedy). JFK’s sole interest was beating the Soviets. He didn’t care about any other benefits. Everything else came second to beating the
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.
...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.
JFK made it sound that anything was possible, even going to the moon. Although Russia was the first country to send a satellite into space, Kennedy intended to advance the space program to make a statement and show that the US’ industrial superiority and challenge the U.S. into becoming an even stronger nation by setting allowances for the specific programs for instance before 1970 First Man on the moon.. The Kennedy Administration was known for it's foreign policy much more so than it's domestic policies. It had a sympathy for the Civil Rights movement and did back up integration every way possible but was unable to achieve any substantive reform.
In September 1961, president John. F. Kennedy delivers one of his best inspirational speeches titled “We choose to go to the Moon”. This notorious speech was addressed at Rice University in Houston Texas to a very fortunate crowd of students. The significance of his timing is both vital and genius for at the time being the cold war between the United States of America and Russia had been in mid-hype, Russia leading in the space race. This brought doubt to the Americas power and authority thus giving his speech more influential drive. Kennedys fear of the Soviet Union landing on the moon first is because he did not want to see the accomplishment “governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of
On May 25, 1961, just two weeks after the US had successfully got an American into space, John F. Kennedy gave a speech addressing it and exclaimed, "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 the Earth. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish..." (Kruse). The Space Race became an important event for all of humanity during the 20th century because it improved our knowledge of space, improved and inspired new technology, and improved our education. It sparked a mix of both friendly and non friendly competition between the Capitalist United States and the Communist Russia (USSR) from the launch of Sputnik in 1957, all the way to the Apollo-Soyuz project that ended the race in 1975 .
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.
President Bush is the first of two presidents that we will talk about in regards to the National Space Policy. During the presidential race, the candidates make
Surprisingly, the United States’ space program started with the Cold War. The Cold war pushed the United States and the Soviet Union into a space race in which both nations rapidly developed space programs and tried to best each other in space exploration (Cold War 1). The Kennedy Space Center was built in Florida as a control center which handled many of the shuttle launches into space (NASA 1). The Space Center was built in Florida for many specific reasons including climate and location (Matson 1). The rapid development of the Space program and the Kennedy Space Center significantly changed the development of the surrounding communities in various ways. The development of NASA and the Space Center was undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and influential undertakings of its time.