https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcoIugXUKfM
Worth watching in your own time: all 4 parts of this 2005 BBC doc, esp. part 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZI8uLCsjlU
Moon Notes and documents
Glossary of terms:
1. When and why did the US begin its preparations for a manned landing on the Moon?
l In the context of the Cold War, the launch of Sputnik into space by the Soviet Union in 1957 made Americans fear that the Russians were overtaking them technologically, and this fear was increased when Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man to orbit the Earth on the 12 April 1961.
l The new President, John F. Kennedy, believed it would take a dramatic achievement such as a manned Moon landing to assert America’s pre-eminence as the world’s major power. He announced his resolution that the US would land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade on 25 May, 1961.
l The development of rocket technology would be a major boost to the US, economically and militarily, and pioneers of rocket technology such as Wernher von Braun had been recruited by the American military to lead this development.
S1. government document “Reaction to the Soviet satellite: a preliminary evaluation” 17 October 1957.
One week after the USSR announced that it had launched an earth satellite, a number of broad major effects on world public opinion appeared clear: 1. Soviet claims of scientific and technological superiority over the West and especially the US have won greatly widened acceptance. 2. Public opinion in friendly countries shows decided concern over the possibility that the balance of military power has shifted or may soon shift in favour of the USSR. 3. The general credibility of Soviet propaganda has been greatly enhanced. 4. American prestige is viewed as having suffered a severe blow, and the American reaction, so sharply marked by concern, discomfiture and intense interest, has itself increased the disquiet of friendly countries and increased the impact of the satellite.
S2: The Irish Times 3 March 1958: A man will definitely be put into outer space within the next ten years, said Dr Wernher von Braun, American’s leading rocket scientist in the interview last night on British television.
S3: The Irish Times 13 April 1961. The great space race between Russia and the US, on which thousands of millions of roubes and dollars have been spent, ended yesterday with the news that Russia ha successfully launched the recovered a man from space, following a 108 minute orbit of the earth. The Soviet Union went wild with joy over the epoch-making voyage of the “cosmonaut”, 27 year old Yuri Gagarin, described by Moscow Radio as “the Colombus of interplanetary space”.
S4: The Irish Times 26 May 1961: President Kennedy went before a joint session of Congress yesterday to deliver what he called “a special message on urgent national needs”. He called for greatly increased expenditure on the US space programme, on arms, foreign aid, and a renewed attack on unemployment. America, he said, should commit itself to landing a man on the Moon by 1970 and returning him safely to earth. This project alone would cost an extra £189,000,000 this year and from £2,500,000,000 (2.5 Billion) to £3,200,000,000 over the next 5 years. In a very real sense it will not be one man going to the moon: it will be the entire nation,” Mr. Kennedy said, “for all of us must work to put him there.”
SS1: News of Sputnik and subsequent Soviet conquests of space jarred the American people. What might the Russian actually do with the capability to send payloads into orbit? Would future rockets carry warheads? Could the Russians establish military outposts on the moon - or even deeper in space? The implications were depressing. The US needed to overtake and surpass the Russians; second place in this conquest could have dire consequences. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy made a special address to a joint session of congress in which he discussed the new “space race” within the context of Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union and other communist nations. “Now it is time to take longer strides - time for a great new American enterprise - time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.”……He then proposed a shockingly improbable goal, one more ambitious than any before it. “I believe we should go to the moon,” he stated simply. (Christopher B. Stain. The Long Sixties, 2017)
What actions did the US take, and what resources did it commit, in making plans for a Moon landing during the 1960s?
l Project Gemini (1962-1966) was set up to investigate the operational and practical aspects of working ans living in outer space.
l The Apollo Program (1961-1972) focused on the challenge of landing a man on the Moon, including the development of space ships and computerised systems that could carry out the series of complex manoeuvres that would be required.
l The Apollo Program alone cost between $25 billion and £35 billion dollars. Each trip to the Moon cost around half a billion dollars.
l The preparations for a Moon landing involved the biggest scientific and technological undertaking in history. It has been estimated that three hundred thousand engineers and other technical staff were involved and many entirely new inventions were developed to meet the challenges of space travel. Computer programmer Margaret Hamilton and other women played important roles.
SS2: Between 1962 and 1966, Project Gemini was tasked with developing “operational capacity in space” and investigating “the problems of working and living in space” as NASA continued to assemble the necessary talent and materials to chase a dream. Under the longer-running Apollo Program (1961-1972) - with its thirty-three flights, eleven of which were manned - NASA focused on the task of actually landing on the moon via lunar rendezvous and coupling, in which a smaller lander leaves the main spacecraft in orbit, descends to the moon’s surface, then returns to lunar orbit to re-dock with the bigger craft to return to Earth. The work involved was almost unimaginable, constituting the largest scientific and technological undertaking in history. Three hundred thousand engineers and technical staff persons, working for 20,000 contractors, made entirely new inventions - from cordless tools to freeze-dried foods - to accomplish the task. The entire science of transistors, integrated circuits, and computer microchips had to be invented and debugged before rocket experts could plan launches and recovery. Working feverishly, NASA scientists and engineers boldly went where none had gone before - and spent tens of billions of dollars in the process. (Chris B. Strain, 2017)
S5: The Irish Times 17 June 1963: Only last week, the US announced the end of Project Mercury, under which four men went into orbit. On paper, its achievements have been less impressive than the Soviet Union’s. Project Gemini, which will put two men into space, has already been started on. The first tests are announced for the end of the year, and the first manned flight in the programme is expected to take place at the end of 1964 leading to further flights of up to two weeks’ duration.
S6: The Irish Times 9 April 1964: The US successfully put into orbit this morning an unmanned Gemini space capsule, designed eventually to carry two men into space for periods as long as a fortnight. The second generation of manned space programmes thus got off to a perfect start and the Titan rocket, which as developed as an intercontinental ballistic missile, proved its versatility. The 29 astronauts, from whom the Gemini’s first passengers will be chosen later this year, watched the 90 feet Titan roar away after a perfect countdown, its first stage engine generating 430,000 lb. Of thrust. Their interest, like that of the many other space scientists gathered at Cape Kennedy, Florida, was focused primarily on the first five minutes and 35 seconds of flight - the time it took for the Titan to exhaust the fuel in its two stages and inject the capsule into orbit - and a variety of measurements were made to ascertain the temperature, pressure and noise to which future astronauts will be subjected.
S7: The Irish Times 16 December 1965: ASTRONAUTS HOLD SPACE RENDEZVOUS SIX-FOOT GAP SEPARATES SPACECRAFT. The two astronauts, Walter Schirra and Thomas Strafford, made a successful take-off from Cape Kennedy yesterday abroad Gemini 6 and approached to within six feet of Gemini 7, which has been orbiting the earth for 12 days. The close approach was made 185 miles above the Mariana Islands, north of Guam, while the two vehicles were orbiting at more than 17,000 miles an hour. US scientists consider that the operation was an important step towards the time when large laboratories will orbit the earth and serve as bases for space research.
S8: The Irish Times 3 March 1966: An important first step towards putting a man on the moon was taken at Cape Kennedy, Florida, on Saturday. The new American Saturn 1-B rocket dispatched an unmanned Apollo spacecraft on a 39-minute sub-orbital flight to a landing 5,300 miles away in the South Atlantic. The launching followed more than four years of preparation and preceded by less than four years the scheduled first lunar landing by American astronauts. The preparations began in May 1961 when defence and space officials gathered in the Pentagon office of the US Defence Secretary, Mr Robert McNamara, to consider a project that would challenge the US and excite all mankind.
Apollo 1 crew: Gus Grisson, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, died in a fatal accident in a pre-launch test of the spacecraft, 27 January 1967.
S9: The Irish Times 26 August 1967: Article entitled: “Is there still a moon race?” by Kenneth W. Gartland, then vice-president of the British Interplanetary Society and Editor of Space Flight.
When the space race claimed its first victims earlier this year, America and Russia were on the brink of exciting new ventures. At Cape Kennedy astronauts were preparing to test their Apollo spacecraft in Earth-orbit. Soviet cosmonauts were in the last stages of training for similar test-flights in the Soyuz (Soviet) spacecraft. The first tragedy came in America when a fire swept the Apollo capsule during the launch pad rehearsal on January 27th, kiing Virgil Grisson, Edward White - experienced astronauts - and Roger Chaffee. The disaster immediately set back America’s moon programme a year. Modifications required to make the spacecraft “safe” are extensive. They include changing to less flammable materials in the cabin, provision of a quick-release hatch, new fire-resistant spacesuits and modifications to launch facilities at Cape Kennedy. When changes in spacecraft manufacture and delivery schedules are taken into account. The cost is estimated at around $75 million.
Note: The victim of the Russian tragedy mentioned above was Colonel Vladimir Komarov, who plunged to his death on 24th April whilst returning to Earth in there-entry capsule of Soyuz 1. According to the Soviet authorities, the tragic accident was due to entanglement of the shroud lines of the landing parachute.
S10: The Irish Times 22 October 1968: Article entitled “How Americans plan to land on the moon” by Arnold Whittaker and Thomas Kelly, leading engineers on the team that developed the lunar module.
Altogether about 2,000 spacecraft hours and some 5,000 astronaut hours are scheduled to be logged before America’s lunar mission takes place. We’re hoping this comes off in 1969 but are prepared to live with unforeseen delays that will push us into 1970. Since 1962, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has followed the concept that the lunar orbit rendezvous mode is the best way of getting a team of men on the moon and our LM (Lunar Module) is a result of this decision. It is really the world’s first true spacecraft, designed to operate solely as a ferry between a spacecraft orbiting the moon and the moon surface. Once it brings the astronauts back up into space, it will be left like a piece of junk while its passengers return to the earth. It is probably the ugliest-looking thing American engineering has ever built - but we’re very proud of it. The basic outward design of the LM hasn’t changed appreciably since 1964. It’s basically two units in one - a descent stage with landing gear to drop the men on the moon and an ascent stage to get them off again. Its weight at earth launch is 32,000 pounds, approximately three quarters of which is fuel.
S11: The Irish Times, 14 March 1969: Less than six hours after the perfect return of Apollo-9 and its three astronauts, NASA announced in Houston Texas, that Apollo 11 would take off for the moon on July 15th and two men would make a lunar landing on July 19th. General Samuel Phillips, manager of the Apollo programme, said that, in May, Apollo-10 would orbit the moon with the lunar module descending to within nine miles of the moon’s surface. Yesterday the capsule carrying the Apollo-9 astronauts,
Manned Apollo missions
Mission
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Date(s)
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Outcome
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Apollo 1
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1967, 27 January
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Pre-launch test leads to accidental death of 3 astronauts
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Apollo 7
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1968, 11 October
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First Apollo mission to carry a crew into space
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Apollo 8
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1968, 21 December
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First space flight to orbit the Moon
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Apollo 9
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1969, 3 March
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First Manned flight test of lunar module
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Apollo 10
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1969, 8 May
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‘Dress rehearsal’ for lunar landing
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Apollo 11
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1969, 20 July
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First Moon landing
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S12
SS3:
What was the impact of the Moon landing, 1969?
l Up to a quarter of the world’s population watched the event on television.
l For Americans, there was relief and deep satisfaction that the US had got to the Moon before the Soviet Union.
l The event was seen as a significant marker in humankind’s technological progress and ability to explore space - by Americans and by many people worldwide.
l Some of the reaction at the time was ‘over the top’ - and the event did not lead on to further achievements in space in the way that some people had anticipated.
l Some Americans criticised the vast sums of spent on sending men to the Moon while poverty and social inequalities were neglected.
l The event helped to increase interest in the ecology movement, as images of the Earth from outer space increased people’s environmental consciousness of Earth’s finite resources and cosmic vulnerability.
S13: The Irish Times 21 July 1969: At 20 seconds after 3.56 A.M. (Irish time) today, the first man set foot on the Moon. He was Neil Armstrong, commander of the Apollo-11 mission who, almost seven hours earlier at 9.17 and 45 seconds - had piloted the lunar landing module, Eagle, to an almost perfect landing in the Sea of Tranquility. At 4.14 he was joined on the surface of the Moon by his companion in the module, Edwin Aldrin. Armstrong’s first words on the moon were: “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” The hatch of the lunar module opened at 3.40. But before placing his foot on the top rung of the descent ladder, Armstrong stood on the threshold and communicated his first impressions of lunar gravity and what he could see back to Earth. A short way down the ladder, he said: “Okay, I’m going to pull it down.” He referred to the instrument pack containing the television camera. At the bottom, Armstrong said his foot sank into the surface very, very slightly, “but I can see my footprint.” “There seems to be no difficulty in moving around,” he said, as he moved away from Eagle’s leg. “It’s a very soft surface, but here and there where I poke with the sample collector I run into a very hard surface,” even though “it appeared to be the same material.” The Moon “has a harsh beauty all its own,” he reported. “It looks like the desert of the US, but it is very beautiful.” In Houston, Space Centre surgeons said that “data is good and Moon crew doing well,” as Armstrong took his historic steps and Aldrin took pictures.
S14: Ground Control called the two into camera range for a conversation with President Nixon, who said: “This must be the most historic telephone call ever made.” “Because of what you have done,” Mr. Nixon told them, “the heavens have become part of the Earth. For the first time in the history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.” Armstrong replied with thanks saying that it was “a great honour and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the US but men of peace of all nations.”
Plague: HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.
S15: Throughout my childhood in the 1950s, Americans regarded science and medicine with a respect bordering on reverence. American technology and science were given the lion’s share of the credit for Allied victory in the Second World War, and few ordinary Americans doubted either the wisdom or the morality of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that finally brought an end to the fighting in the Pacific. As far as the public was concerned, American preeminence in science was a given until the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, but fear that the Russians might win the space race actually raised the prestige of science by providing a rationale for large increases in government spending on basic scientific research and science education. The moon landing in 1969 would probably never have happened without the blow to America’s sense of superiority twelve years earlier. Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, however, represented more than a national and nationalistic achievement: it was a unique moment in which not only technological prowess but the imaginative possibilities of science and exploration were illuminated for Americans and millions of others around the globe.
