Apollo 11

On July 20, 1969 the United States of America took its first step on the moon with Apollo 11. The reasons behind one of the greatest achievements in the history of the United States lies in the Cold War and the Space Race. The Cold War was a time where the world’s leading empires were at great tension. America's alliance with the Soviet Union was beginning to crumble without a common enemy such as the Soviet Union and Japanese. Another factor was the fact that Stalin was refusing to join the United Nations, and angry due to America’s continuing to delay D-Day. Both America and the Soviet Union were beginning to grow suspicious of the others actions. These two superpowers feared each other leading to the Cold War; In the Cold War the Space …show more content…
Fidel Castro had allowed for Soviet nuclear missile sites to be placed in Cuba. It wasn’t long before the United States realized the situation in Cuba. Kennedy along with his advisors made the decision to “Quarantine” Cuba. This quarantine would allow for them to disable the continuation of the building of the missile sites while not being in a state of war. Kennedy went on to give a National public announcement over the situation in Cuba, in this announcement kennedy said “It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”. The following day the United States was met with a message from the Soviets, to include the removal of the Jupiter missiles from Turkey or there would be no agreement between the two. The decision was made to provide steps for the removal of the Cuban missiles under the supervision of the United States for they would soon be removing the Jupiter …show more content…
It now seemed that the Soviet Union was gaining the lead in this Space Race with having sent the first man-made satellite into space as well as the first man. The United States failed yet again to the Soviet Union, Kennedy knew that we were now losing the Space Race and once again facing the Soviet Union. On May 5, 1961 just short of a month the United States sent Alan Shepard into space. Shepard named his capsule Freedom 7 and on his journey he did not orbit the earth but rather fly 116 miles high and return to Earth. His spaceflight was short lived timing at approximately 15 minutes however it was still a victory to be able to enter space and return safely in the spacecraft something the Soviets did not achieve on their first space