How Did Jfk Use Sputnik

Superior Essays
The world dramatically changed in 1957 when the USSR launched Sputnik 1 on October 4. To the American people it meant that now they could drop nuclear warheads on anyone at any given time. Maybe the most important part of the launch of Sputnik was that it showed the United States how behind they were. After this, Sputnik 2 is launched containing a dog in it to see if a living organism can survive in space. Two months later the United States finally makes it a competition. They send Explorer 1, a satellite into orbit on January 31. They send three straight things into space, the Explorer 1 and 2 and the Vanguard satellite. The space race is dominated by the USSR until the 1960’s, and then John F. Kennedy is elected president. On May 25, 1961 Kennedy makes his well-known challenge to the people to go to the moon by the end of the decade. “I believe that this nation 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.” …show more content…
The crew travelled the 238,855 miles to get to the moon. On July 19 they arrived in lunar orbit. After a rough landing of The Eagle, the lunar module, onto the moon they had finally reached their destination. Buzz Aldrin will later say that the problem while landing was that the computer was trying to do too many things at once. (Cite) At 11 p.m., 11:56 to be exact, Lance Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon. They safely join Collins and head back towards Earth. They arrived back at Earth on July 24. The Apollo 11 mission took 36 minutes longer than originally planned. In the next three and half years there were 10 more astronauts to follow in their footsteps. After all of the success for the Americans in space has there been any benefits or negative effects on todays

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