55 years of the moon landing: The difficult road to the moon

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It’s one of those rare moments that almost everyone in the world at the time still remembers clearly. A moment that went down in space history and is engraved in the collective memory of humanity. “This is one small step for a man, but one giant leap for humanity,” said Neil Armstrong as he became the first human to set foot on the Moon’s surface at 03:56 Swiss time on July 21, 1969. thick astronaut boots. On millions of television screens around the world, where technology is still very new, viewers watched live the event that many people did not think was possible.

to the moon after 10 years

The moon landing was a demonstration of space engineering, but above all it was a political victory for the United States. “I believe this nation must commit to achieving the goal before the end of this decade.”

In his speech to the US Congress on Saturday, May 25, eight years ago, that is, 58 years ago, then-US President John F. Kennedy said, “Allowing people to land on the moon and then bringing them back to Earth safely.” . He was killed nearly two years later and did not live to see it: Less than six months before his deadline, the goal became reality.

Why would anyone want to go to the moon?

The dream of landing on the moon was also a result of the Second World War. Following its end, global political power was redistributed and two blocs emerged: Western powers led by the United States and Eastern powers led by the Soviet Union. A systemic conflict between capitalism and communism that would determine almost all areas of economic and political life in the decades to follow and extend into space.

The Cold War never resulted in direct military conflict, but it played out on countless levels in proxy arenas: the nuclear, arms race including espionage and counterespionage, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the construction of the Berlin Wall.

“Space Race” as a show of power between East and West

The Soviet Union’s launch of the first artificial earth satellite “Sputnik 1” into space in 1957 added a new dimension to the conflict. The age of space travel has begun. This meant that the latest missile technology could be presented to the enemy in a frightening way before the world could see, without immediately starting a war.

Therefore, “Sputnik 1” created a shock effect for the USA. The Soviet Union appeared to be ahead and had extremely powerful missiles. The US moved in with increasing powers: the first US satellite, “Explorer 1”, followed in 1958, developed under the direction of German-American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. In the same year, the foundation of the US space agency NASA was laid.

The Soviet Union was ahead

However, the Soviet Union came to the fore again: in 1959, it made the first lunar probe landing with “Lunik 2”, and in 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. It only took less than a month for the Americans to send Alan Shepard into space; but once again the Russians were the first to go. The “Space Race” just got hotter.

President Kennedy wanted to turn things around completely when he went to Congress in 1961 and declared that an American would set foot on the moon before the end of the decade. The “Apollo” project was created for this purpose. Then-NASA boss Abe Silverstein is said to have said, “I named the spaceship after I would give it to my baby.” Apollo, the Greek god of light who rides towards the sun in his triumphal chariot, is an appropriate name “given the size of the proposed programme”.

The birth of the “Apollo” mission

NASA’s budget was increased by 400 percent, and nearly 400,000 people worked directly or indirectly on “Apollo.” NASA had to hire new employees so quickly that many were not even invited to an interview and were hired immediately.

Steve Bales, then only 26 years old, supervised the control station during the moon landing. “There was a 26-year-old kid sitting there, a kid who could stop a space mission,” Bales recently told the British BBC. “Apollo” manager Gerry Griffin says young employees make a lot of things possible. “It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the risks. But they weren’t afraid.”

USA won the race

The “Apollo” project, which cost approximately 24 billion dollars, was delivered. Although “Apollo 1” suffered a sad setback when three astronauts died during a test in 1967, “Apollo” missions 7 through 10 successfully reached space. “Apollo 11” finally made it possible to land on the moon; First Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Earth’s satellite. Five more manned moon landings occurred over the next three years.

When it was announced in 1961, then-US President Kennedy said, “No space project in this era will affect humanity anymore.” He must be right. With the moon landing, it was accepted that the USA had won the “Space Race”. The Soviet Union could no longer do anything more impressive to counter this, due to the premature death of the space program’s architect, Sergei Korolev, in 1966.

What did the moon landing bring?

The atmosphere of heated competition and the euphoria of victory on the American side was quickly followed by disappointment: Were the expensive lunar programs really worth it? The political mood has already changed. In the US, crowds protested the Vietnam War and world peace and understanding, including at the Woodstock hippie music festival. As with the Prague Spring, there were efforts at liberalization in parts of the Eastern Bloc, but these were initially brutally suppressed.

“The Moon landing was undoubtedly inspiring and a decisive public relations victory for the United States in the ‘space war’ against the Soviet Union,” writes The Atlantic magazine, “but it came at a cost.” To achieve the goal as quickly as possible, all of NASA’s other projects were canceled or scaled back. However, the information obtained from manned lunar missions was not of great scientific importance and could often be obtained much more cheaply unmanned. Former astronaut William Anders said the “Apollo” program was nothing more than “a battle in the Cold War.” “This was not a research program.”

End of lunar missions

When the decision to “war” was made, both the Soviet Union and the United States quickly terminated their expensive lunar programs, and the end of “Apollo” came earlier than originally planned. In 1975, an American and a Soviet spacecraft docked together in space for the first time; this was the beginning of a rapprochement that resulted in cooperation that continues to this day, especially on the ISS space station.

The moon is experiencing a renaissance

However: In parallel with the increasing conflict between Russia and the USA, the moon has also become fashionable again in recent years. This time, in addition to Russia and the USA, China, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the European space agency ESA are also participating in the world satellite race.

For now, American Gene Cernan, who died in 2017, remains the last person to set foot on the Moon. He left on December 14, 1972, with the following words: “We are leaving as we came, and – if God wishes – we will return with peace and hope for all humanity.” (SDA)

Source : Blick