Man on the Moon

Man on the Moon

With President John F. Kennedy’s now historic speech in May of 1961, the race to the moon began. This voyage to the moon for the United States would not of been possible however if not for the creation of the massive Saturn 5 rocket by Here Wernher von Braun, a German rocket scientist who worked for NASA after World War II, and his team of scientists. Von Braun’s early design for the Saturn 5, the Saturn I, was a smaller, unmanned two-stage rocket, using eight engines to generate its thrust. The first of its kind was launched five months after President Kennedy’s speech to Congress. Ten trial launches were done by NASA from 1961 until 1965 when the Saturn Ib a similar but more sophisticated rocket, with the potential of carrying men into earth orbit, started being used. The potentially manned rocket was used because of the importance based on reaching the moon before the Soviet Union, who up until this point had been the pioneers of space. The tests on these small Saturn 1s were being done while the first Saturn 5 was being built and launched. This was done to speed up to meet the projected date set by President Kennedy. Fortunately, the first tests of the Saturn 5 were completed with total success, allowing the manned missions to begin. The first manned Apollo mission was Apollo 7, which remained in earth’s orbit and tested the equipment under real space conditions. With the exemption of a few minor problems, it went well. Apollo 8 was the first manned ship to travel around the back side of the moon and return, making observations for the Apollo 11 crew established as the first to try to land on the moon. Apollo 9 tested the lunar module in space as well as the new docking procedures. Apollo 10 tested the LM in lunar conditions flying it down near the lunar surface detached from the command module. Finally Apollo 11 the first manned flight to the moon was a success, all of the planning, tests and work had paid off and the US had met its own deadline of reaching the moon by the end of the decade.

The crew of Apollo 11

Man makes his footprint on the moon

Man walks on the moon

This determination to get to the moon first was not only felt by the United States but also the Soviet Union. Like the United States, the Soviet Union launched several manned and unmanned rockets to test their primary designs. For the Soviets, these were the flights of the first four Soyuz rockets. Contrary to the United States three stage Saturn 5, the five stage Soyuz with N-1 booster used a different strategy of reaching space, by using many smaller engines rather that few large engines like the Saturn’s. Vladimir Komarov designed the Soyuz with N-1 booster. The first three stages were exhausted and released within earth’s atmosphere, while the fourth stage would send the Lunar Orbital Cabin and the Lunar Cabin to the moon where it would be released, too. In February of 1969, the first Soyuz rocket with N-1 booster on it was launched but due to a fire in the first stage of the rocket, the flight was aborted and the rocket was destroyed. Five months later the second rocket of this kind was ready to be launched. Unfortunately as fuel was being pumped into the rocket, the pump failed, sending pieces of metal throughout the fuel tank of the N-1 booster, which quickly exploded, destroying any chance of beating the United States to the moon. The Apollo 11 launch was thirteen days away. July 20th was the day that man first stepped on the Moon. America reached the moon only six months before the deadline set by JFK nine years prior.