Happy Anniversary NASA. 45 Years Ago Today The United States Of America Landed Neil Armstrong And Buzz Adrin On The Moon To Become The First People Ever To Set Foot On Another World. (The Attached Photo Shows The Exhibit At The Memorial Museum Of Astronautics In Moscow, Displaying A Model Of The Saturn V Rocket That Carried The Americans To The Moon.) In 1969 The Soviets/Russians Were Heartbroken; For They Had Wanted So Much And Had Worked So Hard In Order That This Incredible Acheivement Would Be Theirs. They Had Gotten An Early Lead And Set The Standard For Both Manned And UnManned Spaceflights -- In What Quickly Became The Space Race. First They Launched An Artificial Satellite Into Earth Orbit On Octoner 4, 1957. Then They Scored Several Firsts In Unmanned Lunar And Planetary Exploratory Missions, Garnishing Much New Information For The World Scientific Commnunity. Then, April 12, 1961 The Soviets Launced Yuri Gagarin Into Space To Celebrate The First Manned Orbital Flight In Near-Earth Space. They Continued To Stay A Step Or Two Ahead Of The Rapidly Growing American Space Program Until About 1966-67 With Two And Then Three Man Crews, And Alexey Leonovs First Ever Walk-In-Space In !965. Then, Despite The Setback Of The Tragic Apollo I Ground Test In 1967, The Americans Began To Get The Edge In 1968 When They Rolled Out The First Operational Saturn V Super-Booster/Moon Rocket. The Soviets Had Been Working On The Comparable N-! Superbooster, But, Unbeknowns To The Americans, They Were Having Computer Trouble Stabilizing And Coordinating The Simultaneous Operation Of The 30-Engine Cluster In The Rockets Massive First Stage. (We Now Know How Close The USSR Came To Solving This Problem In Time For A First Attempt At Manned Lunar Flight. See Documentary Below) The Americans Then Took A Bold Risk, Suddenly Sending Apollo 8 Around The Moon On Christmas Day 1968 And, After Further Preparatory Tests With Apollo Missions 9 And 10, Undertook An Extremely Risky Apollo 11 Mission To Set Down (Barely) Successfully On The Lunar Surface In The Wee EDT Hours On The Morning On July 20,1969. Soviet Citizens Of The Worlds Only Other Independent Manned Spacefaring Nation At That Time, Admittedly With Mixed Feelings, Could Not Help But Share With The Americans And The Rest Of The World The Admiration And Joy Commensurate With Mankinds Enormous Accomplishment, One Comparable Sleeping With Sirens The Moment In Time When Life First Crawled From The Sea Onto The Land. Today The Memorial Museum In Moscow Pays Tribute To All Astronauts, Cosmonauts, And(Chinese) Taikonauts The World Over. (See Second Photo.)
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 06:00:44 +0000
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