To many people the Space Race was one of the most important events of the 1900’s. It started during the cold war when the Soviets and America were racing to get the first ever man on the moon. In order for America to accomplish this goal, there had to be an ambitious president in office. Fortunately for America, John F Kennedy wanted to win this Space Race more than anyone in the United States. On September 12, 1962; John F Kennedy gathered the nation at Rice stadium in Houston Texas to give a speech about the Space Race. The speech was so inspiring that Americans wanted to practically go in space right there and then. The mission to land a man on the moon was called Apollo 11. The soviets got off to a much better start than the Americans did. In 1957 the soviets launched the first ever satellite in space called “Sputnick”. Many American people were shocked and worried that the satellite was spying on America. This encouraged NASA to try even harder to achieve winning the Space Race. Also, the Soviets beat America by putting the first ever human in space named “Yuri Gagarin”. …show more content…
EDT. There were three members on this space ship with three different jobs. Neil Armstrong’s job was to collect samples from the moons surface. Buzz Aldrin had the job of helping escort Armstrong and to also collect samples as they explored. The last astronaut’s job was to Pilot the aircraft in Lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin had finished collecting samples. Neil Armstong was officially the first man on the moon. Together Armstong and Aldrin collected about 47.5 pounds of Lunar resources to bring back to earth for testing. Overall the mission was a success in the fact that America beat the soviets in the Space Race, and also collect almost 50 pounds of Lunar resources. Apollo 11 returned 18 days later on July 24th to be greeted by a huge crowd. Once people saw how incredible these astronauts were, they were looked at as heroes in