Project Apollo: The Race to Land on the Moon (Moon Flight Atlas)

Project Apollo: The Race to Land on the Moon (Moon Flight Atlas) — page 3
The Apollo program To the Moon In 1962 President John F Kennedy delivered his famous We choose to go to the Moon speech It set the United States on the path of dedicated space exploration that would result in the lunar landing in 1969 Why did President Kennedy make his speech In an earlier message to Congress on May 25 1961 President Kennedy said the battle between freedom and tyranny in the world would be won when America took a leading role in space achievement He was referring to the sense of wonder people felt when in 1957 the Soviet Union U S S R launched the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 This act led to a competition for dominance in space between the U S and the U S S R It was called the Space Race Kennedy’s focus in his message to Congress and his later We choose to go to the Moon speech was to land a man on the Moon before the Soviet Union Project Apollo was the space program that would make it happen Mercury spacecraft Gemini spacecraft Apollo spacecraft with Lunar Module attached President Kennedy left arrow inspects the Mercury spacecraft that John Glenn right arrow flew into orbit on February 20 1962 What was Apollo This was the name for the entire U S Moon program The Apollo spacecraft right was designed to carry three astronauts It followed the smaller single-seat Mercury and the two-seat Gemini They all shared a capsule or small container design 4