The Impact of the Moon Landing

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew that included astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar module "Eagle" onto the surface of the moon and says his famous line, "That's one step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The success of the moon landing set by President Kennedy earlier in 1961 had promised that the US would land and return the astronauts safely back to Earth. This would have effect during the Cold War in which both the US and the Soviet Union wanted to show their technological superiority over the world and each other. Since the Soviets had been the first to send cosmonaut into space and the first to launch satellites, the US wanted to do something bigger that Soviets would not accomplish, that being sending the first man to the moon. Being far behind the Soviets led to the US investing more science. The goal Kennedy had set needed to come true if they wanted to prove to the world that they technologically superior compared the Soviet Union. Due to the accomplishments, the Soviets achieved the US did not want to fall behind them. The Apollo missions were not always very successful. On Apollo 1 the crew aboard the rocket would unfortunately die. From Apollo 2 up until Apollo 10, it was mostly testing rockets, unmanned missions, and the introduction of the lunar module. It took the US 8 years to accomplish that goal that would have an impact on the world. The US would have 6 more missions to send more astronauts to land on the moon to conduct more research. In December 19,1972 the last mission to send astronauts to the moon was the mission Apollo 17.