![]() There he said these well-known words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Then, he stepped on the moon's surface where he could look up and see Earth far above him. People around the world watched and listened as Neil slowly climbed down the ladder of the lunar lander. On July 20, 1969, he set foot on the moon. And the United States would go on to complete six crewed missions that landed a total of 12 astronauts on the moon from 1969 to 1972.Thirty-five years ago astronaut Neil Armstrong did something no one had ever done before. The men who had traveled more than 200,000 miles to the moon and then stepped foot on an alien world had survived. Watching Apollo 11 live from the moon, the President could only hope he wouldn't have to read it. His staff had prepared a statement to be read in the event the worst happened and organized a priest to commit their souls to the deep, much like a burial at sea. If anything went wrong, he would have to manage America’s outrage over billions of tax dollars culminating in the death of two astronauts. Watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take their first steps on the moon, Nixon’s anxiety reached a peak. That nerve-racking honor fell to President Richard Nixon, who had been elected in 1968. ![]() While President Kennedy had rallied the nation to land a man on the moon, he was assassinated before he could see the Apollo mission achieve his vision. President Nixon was anxious the mission could fail. Since humans had never been to the moon before, NASA scientists couldn’t be sure that some deadly space-borne plague hadn’t hitched a ride on the astronauts.Īs soon as their re-entry capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, the trio was transferred to a mobile quarantine facility inside which they were transported to NASA Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center where they had access to a larger quarantine facility until their release on August 10, 1969. President Richard Nixon speaking with Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin who were subjected to a period of quarantine upon their return to Earth.Īfter risking their lives for the advancement of humanity, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins had the dubious pleasure of being stuck in planetary protection quarantine on their return. Buzz Aldrin took holy communion on the moon. Abernathy prayed for the safety of the astronauts and said he was as proud as anyone at the accomplishment. ![]() Paine then arranged to have members of the group attend the next day’s launch from a VIP viewing area. ![]() After Paine and Abernathy talked for a while under lightly falling rain, Paine said he hoped Abernathy would “hitch his wagons to our rocket, using the space program as a spur to the nation to tackle problems boldly in other areas, and using NASA’s space successes as a yardstick by which progress in other areas should be measured.” They brought with them two mules and a wooden wagon to illustrate the contrast between the gleaming white Saturn V rocket and families who couldn’t afford food or a decent place to live.Īmid the heady build-up to the launch, the NASA administrator, Thomas Paine, came out to talk to the protestors, face-to-face. A few days before the scheduled launch of Apollo 11, a group of activists, led by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, arrived outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center. The Soviets covered up their efforts to get to the moon first. Johnson, in fact, had long been a space advocate, saying in 1958, "Control of space is control of the world." 3. dominance, Johnson reported back, was by sending a manned mission to the moon. Just months after JFK’s inauguration, the Soviet Union had sent the first man into space. Kennedy asked his vice president, Lyndon B. In a 1962 meeting with advisors and NASA administrators, JFK confessed, "I'm not that interested in space." But he was interested in winning the Cold War. Kennedy had boldly pledged that the United States would “set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people."īut secret tapes of Kennedy’s discussions would later reveal that in private, JFK was less interested in space exploration than in one-upping the Soviets.
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