Stearns
With the following words, President John F. Kennedy launched one of the largest endeavors that United States ever embarked upon: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon, and returning him, safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish”
(Pyle). This ambitious goal declared on May 25, 1961 before a joint session of Congress, began the space program in America that would lead to the first man on the moon eight years later. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module's ladder and onto the Moon's surface. Apollo 11, the most commemorated lunar mission in America resulted from a lot preliminary efforts and preparation that without, the giant leap for mankind could not have been possible.
The National
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Humanity finally crossed over earth's boundaries and to the moons on the 11th Apollo mission. None of it could have happened without all the preparation and overcoming of the many technical hurdles. The work in Project Mercury, the Gemini Program and the Apollo missions was much more complex and significant than many think. All the missions played such an important role in reaching the moon. By the completion of the first lunar landing mission, American astronauts already logged more than 5,000 man-hours in space. America invested over 20 billion dollars on this project in about ten years. The successful completion of the most complex technological and audacious undertaking of the twentieth century got accomplished before the end of the decade, thanks to the work of a team of over 400,000 people