This Week in History

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CWA # 1414, 28 July 2024
This Week in History
US launches Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins

  Prajwal T V

On 16 July 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 on the Saturn V spacecraft from Kennedy Space Centre, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on a 9-day journey to the moon.

The US, NASA and the Apollo Missions 
On 25 May 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy in his historic address to the joint session of the US Congress, set a national goal, stating that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” 

The Soviet Union’s Sputnik, launched on October 1957, orbiting over the United States every hour and a half triggered a new race. A year later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a public order which led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in October 1950 which was focused solely on space exploration.

Despite the establishment of NASA, the Soviet Union took the lead again with the launch of Luna 2 the first space probe to hit the lunar surface in 1959, and then the launch of Vostok 1 which put the first man in space, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the earth. As the Cold War’s space race heated up, through several trials and errors, in May 1961, President Kennedy made the bold decision to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade laying the foundations for the Apollo mission. 

On 27 January 1967, during a launch pad simulation of the first manned mission of the Apollo project - Apollo 1 faced a major setback; Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee - the first Apollo crew tragically lost their lives after a flash fire broke out in the capsule. After a year of reviewing and reworking the project, NASA launched the first successful manned mission to the moon, Apollo 8 carrying astronauts Frank Borman, William A. Anders,  and James A. Lovell Jr, which orbited the moon ten times before returning to Earth in December 1968. On Christmas Eve, 1968, while in orbit Anders took the iconic "Earthrise" photo.

Six months later, on 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin who landed on the Moon after 4 days in space. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk the moon. Armstrong's statement “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped on the surface of the moon has become both politically and culturally renowned, leading a new era for space exploration for the United States and mankind as a whole.

Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the surface of the moon carrying out scientific experiments and returning with lunar surface samples. This historic effort that sent the first U.S. astronauts into orbit around the Moon in 1968, was witnessed by 650 million people across the globe through televised audio-visuals. The Apollo mission was further carried out to land a dozen astronauts on the moon between 1969 and 1972 with the last mission of Apollo 17. 

Legacy of the Apollo Mission
On 15 July 1975, the first-ever international space cooperation project was carried out between the US and the USSR, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which opened up a new frontier of cooperation between the two rival countries amid the Cold War, an Apollo spacecraft with a crew of three astronauts docking with the Soyuz spacecraft with two Soviet cosmonauts for two days carrying out several joint experiments. 

Towards building the International Space Station (ISS), although the primary station was made in 1969 by the Soviet Union with two Soyuz crafts docking with each other, collaboration towards building the ISS was possible with American shuttles that became the next generation mission of the Apollo. This went on to become a reflection of global cooperation between 15 countries who contributed to the construction of the ISS which has led to several scientific achievements and aided in a deeper understanding of space technologies.

The legacy of the Apollo Mission primarily lies in its impact on the scientific and cultural fields. Apollo laid the case and foundation for prioritizing and funding research and development as an important force for national power and development. Culturally, the Space race not only exacerbated scientific advancement but also culturally kicked off a competition between nations based on encouragement for countries to develop space programmes and explore collaborations.

About the Author

Prajwal TV is an undergraduate student of Journalism, International Relations, and Peace Studies at St Joseph’s University, Bangalore. 

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