Neil Armstrong's Achievements

By 1961, the Cold War was well underway, and up until this point, the Soviet Union had greatly surpassed the United States in the space race. America’s space program, called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was waning in comparison to the space program in the USSR. The successes of the artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957 and the launching of Yuri Gagarin into space in 1967 had greatly embarrassed the United States. This embarrassment prompted President Kennedy to become a man on a mission to propose something bold, something monumental, and something that could change the trajectory of the nation. On May 25, 1961, he announced his goal, one that many perceived to be overly ambitious and most likely impossible, of safely landing a man on the moon and bring him him home by the end of the decade. His mission led to the formation of the famous Apollo program (also known as Project Apollo). …show more content…
The creation of NASA was …show more content…
In December of 1962, the Mariner 2 mission was a success, and it marked the first space probe to flyby a planet. While revolutionary, the Mariner 2 mission only scratched the surface of what could be learned about the unknown planets. Almost two years would pass before the next successful mission would occur. heading towards Mars, the Mariner 4 space probe was launched on November 28, 1964. Few people believed that capturing images of the moon would be possible and even less believed in the possibility of photographing Mars. However, The Mariner 4 probe would send its first set of pictures to earth on July of