“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The famous words of the first man to take a step on the moon, Neil Armstrong, rocked the nation in 1969. Prior to the first human landing on the moon, the morale in the United States was depleted. In the early 1960’s, the people of the United States were coping with the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and civil rights for African Americans. Americans also felt uneasy about the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union and feared their nuclear capabilities. President John F. Kennedy wanted to find something that would boost morale and rebuild the American image, so he audaciously committed the United States to the lunar mission of getting a man on the moon by 1970. Even though President Kennedy was assassinated and did not get to witness the event, the mission of the Apollo 11 attained his dream. The Saturn V spacecraft took off from Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, with the three man team of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin Jr. The mission had one main goal, which was to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong executed that goal when he stepped foot on the moon. At that point in time, the people in the control room thought winning the race was the salient victory, but never thought about what that moment in time really meant.
