In his 'Urgent National Needs' speech to Congress in 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to putting Americans on the Moon by the end of the decade. At that point, the lunar program was still in its infancy. As a result of this speech, Congress devoted more resources to making Kennedy's goal a reality. Space exploration was then taking place in the context of the Cold War. The United States was competing with the Soviet Union in achieving major space feats. It often seemed like the Soviets had the advantage in space exploration in the early years, as they first orbited a satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 and sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space on April 12, 1961. Kennedy chose a major space feat, putting the first humans on the Moon, as a way of proving to the world that the United States was the leader in space. The Apollo Program's original purpose was to take Americans to the Moon and back to Earth, and in the early days planners did not give attention to any additional objectives. It was not long until some scientists began to see the larger potential of the Apollo Program. Very little was known about the Moon in the 1960s. Most astronomers had focused their studies on objects farther away--the Sun, other stars, and distant planets, but there was still a significant amount of curiosity about the Moon and what it might tell scholars about the early history of the Earth.
Lunar Receiving Laboratory Project History
2004
80 pages
Report
No indication
English