Ryan Schluter
Luke Smith
U.S. history
6/8/14
Apolos and the Journey to the Moon.
The Book I read was called Mission Control, This is Apollo. This Novel was about the struggles and and learning steps it took to get to the moon. There were a total of 17 missions from 1963 to 1972. Not all of them landed on the moon and to be even more precise only about six missions made it to the moon and back. The journey to the moon was a lot of struggles and heartbreak but the feeling of achieving the goal was all worth it for the United States.
The first apollo was a tragic start for the apollo program. Three astronauts lost their lives in a deadly fire in an Apollo Command Module during a preflight test. For this to happen was a huge disappointment for the apollo program and a wake up call for flights to come. This tragedy show just how dangerous it was going to be and how much farther we would have to go to be able to get to the moon. Getting to the moon was no walk in the park but was a race, a space race. The United States was in race to beat Russia to the moon and back and so far they were already in space.
Apollo 7 was the first Flight carrying American astronauts into earth's lower orbit. This gave americans hope and made NASA the top entertainment for the United States. After This flight NASA could breathing a bit more and now they could start tweaking the missions to land on the moon. Tweaking that was added to the rockets were Lunar Modules. Lunar Modules are a small craft used for traveling between the moon's surface and an orbiting spacecraft. They took the top scientist to understand how to fly a small aircraft in zero gravity. (Fun fact Lunar Modules walls are made from thin sheets of tin foil.)
Apollo 11 was the first United States landing on the moon, beating Russia in the space race. the first astronaut to walk on the moon was neil armstrong, his partner Buzz Aldrin soon followed. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin left a small gold olive branch on the Moon, along with an Apollo 1 patch and two Russian cosmonaut medallions to honour those that were killed during the space race. He almost forget to leave them until Armstrong reminded him and he unceremoniously dumped them on his way back into the command module. The pair also left their moon boots and urine bags on the lunar surface. The last thing they placed on the moon was the American Flag. The American flag they placed near the Command Module was blown over by the downdraft when they launched back into space. In future Apollo missions flags were placed a good distance away. After Apollo 11, 12 more astronauts walk on the moon surface.
The Space Race was one of the most important landmarks in history. Winning showed power and with power comes money and intimidation. Even though war would not have started if we lost it put the United States where we are today.
The Space Race was one of the most important landmarks in history. Winning showed power and with power comes money and intimidation. Even though war would not have started if we lost it put the United States where we are today.
