The Initiation of the Space Program

Neil Armstrong on the Moon

   In 1957, Russia beat the United States to the space therefore starting the space race. Russians launched a satellite named sputnik into orbit that helped with capturing images, helping with communication and many other things. This glorious event for the Russians caused the U.S to step up her game and not behind it's communist rival. Two years later, president Eisenhower was dedicated on getting a group of seven men to orbit around earth and bring them back safely therefore initiating the Mercury project. I found this source helpful because it gives good initial information on the program to start off the reader and has links to more information if one needs it. In 1961, the Russians beat the Americans once more by sending an astronaut into orbit and bringing him back safely. This proved to the Americans that they were falling behind and their only hope to win this race was to land a man on the moon.

Apollo 11 Launch

   In May 1961, President Kennedy went up to the congress and asked for 9 billion dollars in order to not only match the Russians, but to beat them to the moon and restore the confidence of U.S citizens to their country. At the same time, Kennedy challenged NASA to land a man on the moon in a decade. On the coming years, U.S would send many men into space to orbit Earth and gather data while at the same time, they would work on the Apollo projects that were meant to send a man to the moon and return him safely back to Earth.


   After billions of dollar and countless hours of work, the United States landed Neil Armstrong on the moon in June 20, 1969. I like the preceding source because it gives a very brief and informative summary of the space program, allowing me to organize my points easier and more "to the point". His famous words were "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" right when he stepped out of the cabin. here is the footage of the Launching and the Landing on Moon. I think these videos are very helpful to understand fully on how the moon landing project was carried out.  Finally, the U.S had beaten the Russians at the Space Race and landed a man on the moon. The bragging rights returned to the U.S citizens and everyone thought it was over. It was just getting started. Over the next years the U.S would send many more rockets to the moon and into the space to gather information and do tests. 

Kennedy Giving his Speech at Rice University

   In the 1970s the U.S launched the Skylab into space which was a giant space station that would stay in space and get refueled every couple months in order for the astronauts in it to survive. I found the preceding internet station very helpful because it is associated with NASA which means the information is correct and reliable, it helped me understand what the Skylab's purpose was during the time and how the astronauts were able to survive up there. This space station's main goal was to prove to the world that humans could live and survive in space for extended periods of time and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy. Over it's period of use, 300 scientific experiments were made on Skylab. When NASA finally decided to cancel the program on July 1979, Skylab was brought back to Earth but scattered debris over the Indian ocean and settled on the Western Australia region. Skylab was the first of the U.S space stations and when it was taken down, people thought the U.S would not want to spend the money to send up another one but couple years later, the ISS (International Space Station) was launched, starting the age of space stations.

Skylab Space Station

   Above all, the space program had a social impact on all american citizens. I found this site very helpful because it gives many examples of the social impacts on the society and it is also associated with NASA meaning that it is true and reliable. Once man landed himself on the moon, all kinds of questions came up like is there life on other planets? What comes next? can we live someplace other than earth? and so much more. This affected the educational system in a big way, the youth was very interested in these rockets that were being launched into space and the government wanted to advertise it's victory as much as possible so Schools and Universities started teaching aerospace engineering, astronomy, nuclear physics and many other courses to educate the public on this topic. I think the best way to explain the educational impact of the space program is to give a link to the speech of Kennedy at Rice university on the Space Program. So after all, it really was a small step for Neil Armstrong but a giant leap for mankind in all kinds of different ways. 

The Logo of the Mercury Project

   In conclusion, the U.S space program initiated a lot of important projects. Imagine where we would be without the satellites today, we would not get cell phone reception, we could not use our GPS, we could not picture our earth, and we could not picture our universe the way we do today. This multi billion dollar project is the best money that U.S has ever spent in my opinion and maybe one day, it will be able to take us to other planets and maybe discover life.