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On October 4, 1957, space exploration became real.
That’s when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite. Called Sputnik I, it went into orbit around Earth. It was the size of a basketball! After that, the United States really wanted to beat the Soviets in the race to space.
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a big speech about a bold and exciting plan. The U.S. would send an American to the Moon before the end of the decade. The program was called Project Apollo. It was named for the Roman and Greek god of sunlight. Legend says that Apollo drove a shiny golden chariot across the sky.
◀ Why did the U.S. want to get to the Moon first? The Cold War. That was a long, stressful conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviets shocked the world when they launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite. In April 1961, they put the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Americans felt they had to catch up. So the “space race” to the Moon was on! The Soviets had some big early wins. But after those successes, they failed to reach the Moon. At left is the launch of an unmanned Soviet rocket. It blew up shortly after takeoff.
The U.S. was ready to go to the Moon. But how would it get there? NASA built the biggest rocket ever, the Saturn V. It would carry the Apollo spaceship and crew. (A Saturn V was built to launch each Apollo mission.) The rocket was 363 feet tall. It could lift 125 tons into space! Its first test flight was in 1967. Here is the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo 11 ship to the Moon. ▶
◀ Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the Moon. He did that on July 20, 1969. It was five months before President Kennedy’s deadline. As he stepped off the lunar lander onto the Moon’s surface, Armstrong said: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
▲ On the Apollo 14 mission, astronauts used a small cart to carry experiments. Commander Alan Shepard also brought a golf club and two golf balls. He took several swings on the Moon. He said the second ball went “miles and miles and miles” in the weak gravity. It really flew only 400 yards. That’s about the length of four football fields. Still, that’s way farther than it would have gone on Earth!
◀ Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each carried a car that ran on a battery. It was called a lunar rover. In a rover, the astronauts could go miles across the Moon. But on the trip home, the load had to be lighter. So all three rovers were left on the Moon.
The last Apollo mission landed in rocky highlands by the Sea of Serenity. The astronauts were shocked to see orange-colored soil. They later found out more about the color. It came from tiny balls of volcanic glass. Billions of years ago, volcanic fire burst across the valley. That’s when the glass balls were laid down. ▶
◀ The Apollo 17 astronauts left behind this plaque when they went home. It is made of aluminum.
