Who Will be the First to the Moon?
During the cold war the United States and Russia had raced each other to be the first in
outer space and the moon. The Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite into outer
space. In May, 1961, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., mad a suborbital flight, becoming the first
American in space. John H. Glenn, Jr., orbited the earth in 1962. After John F. Kennedy
took office as president, he set the goal of being the first country to put a man on the
moon. With the launch of Sputnik I the United States was afraid that the Soviet Union
would be the first to land on the moon. The United States had made many attempts to
launch a spaceship to the moon but failed because of mistakes in hurrying the building of
the spaceships. Finally, on July 20, 1969, the United States had finally achieved it’s goal
to be the first to land on the moon. With the launch of Apollo 11 in July 1969. It took
three days to make it to the moon. The astronauts on board where Commander Neil A.
Armstrong, Colonel Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Collins. Collins
remained on the Apollo 11 commander module- Columbia, while Armstrong and Aldrin
landed on the moon in a lunar module- Eagle. Armstrong was the first American and
human to set foot on the moon as he stepped out of the lunar module he said "That’s one
small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind." As they raised the American flag as
the world watched. The landing on the moon was the end of the race to the moon
between the two countries. The first to greet the crew of Apollo 11 on July 24, 1969, was
President Richard Nixon. The landing on the moon was a dream that many had never lived to see, including President John F. Kennedy.
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