In April 1961 a president asked a plain question: is there anything in space we can win? Eight years later two people walked on the Moon.
This story follows how they got there, in the words of those who were there: who built the rocket and what its past held, who did the sums, who died on the way, and why it stopped. Nearly all of it comes from NASA’s own records.
Apr 1961
In April 1961 President Kennedy wrote to his vice president and asked where the country stood in space. Could it beat the Soviets with a laboratory in orbit, a trip around the Moon, or a landing?
Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?
25 May 1961
On 25 May 1961 Kennedy asked Congress for the Moon. He put it in the terms of the day, a battle going on around the world, and he did not hide the bill: no single project would be so difficult or expensive.
First, 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 the earth.
12 Sep 1962
A year later, in a stadium in Houston, he gave the reason people still remember.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
1 Jul 1960
The Moon rocket fell to Wernher von Braun. He had arrived with about 125 others at the end of the war. In 1960 he and his team became the core of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and he became chief architect of the Saturn V.
Von Braun came to the United States in September 1945 under contract with the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps as part of Operation Paperclip.
1944
Von Braun’s V-2 rockets were assembled by enslaved prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora camp. He had joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and become a junior SS officer in 1940. NASA’s own biography says he knew the conditions and took part in decisions about the use of slave labor.
Over 20,000Deaths at Mittelbau, by one historian's estimate
Wagner estimates that over 8,000 died during the evacuations, raising the final Mittelbau toll to over 20,000.
1965
Apollo cost about $25 billion in the money of the time. NASA’s chief historian says spending peaked at over 4 percent of the national budget; an earlier NASA history puts 1965 at 5.3 percent.
400,000Americans working on Apollo at its peak
At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 Americans and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.
1962
At Langley a “computer” was a person. Katherine Johnson joined the all-black West Area Computing Section in 1953. Even with electronic machines at hand, John Glenn asked her to recheck the numbers before he flew. NASA says her calculations proved critical to the Moon landings.
If she says they’re good, then I am ready to go.
27 Jan 1967
On 27 January 1967, in a test on the launch pad, fire broke out in the cabin of Apollo 1. Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died. The cabin held pure oxygen. The board found no sign of sabotage, and called the test conditions extremely hazardous.
in its devotion to the many difficult problems of space travel, the Apollo team failed to give adequate attention to certain mundane but equally vital questions of crew safety.
24 Dec 1968
On 21 December 1968 Apollo 8 became the first mission to take people to the Moon. On Christmas Eve, in orbit around it, the crew looked up from their work.
Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!
Jul 1969
The Soviets were building a Moon rocket too. Sergei Korolev, who had survived Stalin’s prisons and launched Sputnik, began the N-1 in 1962 and died in 1966. All four of its test flights failed.
The second test, in July 1969, was a greater disaster. The rocket shut down seconds after lift-off, fell onto the launch pad, and exploded.
16 Jul 1969
Apollo 11 left Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 in the morning on 16 July 1969, on a Saturn V.
20 Jul 1969
Minutes from the surface, the crew called down a computer alarm: “It’s a 1202.” Houston told them to go on. Another alarm followed, and then the low-fuel light, 72 seconds before landing.
We're Go on that alarm.
20 Jul 1969
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” And from the ground: “You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again.”
45 secondsOf firing time left at landing, by NASA's count
Approximately 45 seconds of firing time remained at landing.
20 Jul 1969
They spent about two and a half hours outside and collected 21.55 kg of samples. The plaque they left reads: “We came in peace for all mankind.”
That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind.
18 Jul 1969
With the crew already on their way, William Safire wrote a speech for President Nixon, to be read if the two men were stranded. It was never needed.
the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
Apr 1970
On the way to the Moon in April 1970, Apollo 13 lost its power and oxygen supply. The lunar module became the one way home, the landing was called off, and the crew came back on 17 April.
Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.
14 Dec 1972
NASA had planned ten landings. Tighter budgets cut the list, and public attention had turned, with the Vietnam War among the reasons. Apollo 17 was the last.
We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.