July 2009 is the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that culminated in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the US flag on the surface of the Moon.
The moon landings were the product of a competition between the US and the Soviet Union. During the 1950’s the Soviet Union had become alarmed by the fact that US bombers could reach Soviet soil, while the Soviet’s antiquated bombers were unable to reach the US. In response the Soviets began a program to develop a range of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Partly as an exercise in national pride and partly to demonstrate the capabilities of their missiles the soviets launched a series of rockets launches that sent the first satellite (Sputnik), the first animal into orbit (Laika the dog) and the first man (Uri Gegarin) into space. Stung into action by a string of Soviet firsts, the American President galvanised the nation and entranced the world by announcing that before the decade (1960s) was out, the US would carry a man to the surface of the moon and return him safely to earth. In the last year of that decade, a Saturn rocket carried a team of American astronauts into space with less computer power that 
you’d find today in a blackberry. The mission took 3 days to reach the moon and the computers crashed during the final descent forcing Neil Armstrong to pilot the landing by hand. As he stepped down from the Moonlander’s ladder he said; “It’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” They took 22 kg of lunar soil and left an American flag, an Apollo 11 mission patch, and a plaque bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and US President Richard Nixon. The inscription read “Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind”. Despite this sentiment, it was not a UN flag that was planted; and the moon landings were a product of a technology race between two superpowers that were building and developing stockpiles of missiles with nuclear warheads. The build-up of nuclear weapons became so serious that two famous song writers at the time wrote,
… there are now three thousand million people living on this earth. And the stock piled mass destruction of the nuclear powers that be, equal for each man and woman, 20 tonnes of TNT.”
By Flanders & Swan
The space race led to a range of developments: some horrifying (huge nuclear arsenals), some amazing (the moon landings) and some which have an impact on our daily lives (Sat Nav). The Apollo program was abandoned after the Apollo 17 flight. No one has been back to the moon since.
Last Updated on Friday, 04 December 2009 23:09