https://www.history.com/news/buzz-aldrin-moon-landing-accident

 
Man in Space 
By Ryan Taylor 
 
“The surface is fine and powdery, I can pick it up loosely with my toe,” Neil 
Armstrong reported to Mission Control in Houston. Moments before, he had 
delivered the oft-quoted “One small step for man” line, and became the first 
person to ever walk on the surface of the moon.  
 
Nineteen minutes later, Buzz Aldrin would join him, becoming the second. 
 
This was the culminating moment of over a decade of spaceflight, and 66 years of 
aviation history. 
 
But how did we get here, and what made us want to? Let’s rewind, all the way 
back to September, 1944.  
 
Stage 1: Early Rockets 
 
At this time, Hitler was desperate for a way to win the war. The Allies were 
advancing, and the end was in sight. Hitler began the use of the V-2 rocket, the 
first ballistic missile with the capability to cross the Kármán line, the boundary 
between the upper atmosphere and outer space. 
 
The scientist who developed the weapon, Wernher von Braun, had joined the 
Nazi Party not as a representation of his beliefs, but as a career move which 
would grant him practically unlimited funding. As the war began to end, von 
Braun knew that the Third Reich would not be able to continue to support his 
research for much longer.  
 
Von Braun then decided his next strategic career move: escape. As the Americans 
and the Soviets were closing in, he had to make a choice as to who to surrender 
to. He chose the Americans, and unknown to all, this move is what started the 
space race. 
 
With von Braun and his rocket team sent to the United States, the U.S.S.R. had to 
salvage what was left of the V-2 rockets, and the scientists the U.S. left behind in 
Germany. The most important scientist they obtained was not from Germany at 
all. 
 
Sergei Korolev was a rocket scientist, falsely imprisoned in a soviet gulag for acts 
of sabotage. After serving six years of his ten year sentence, he was freed to start 
their space program.  
 
Once the Soviets had seen the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they 
assumed that America was planning to use von Braun to develop ballistic missiles 
with nuclear capabilities. They moved forward with their nuclear program, and 
tested their first bomb in 1949. 
 
A month later the Russians launched an improved version of the V-2 rockets with 
twice the range, named the R-7.  
 
Korolev was receiving military funding to provide for research on his rockets, 
knowing that it could one day take humans to space. Von Braun, however, was 
receiving very little funding, so he made a drastic decision.  
 
In 1954, he pitched the idea of space travel to the American public directly. In a 
television film produced with Walt Disney titled ​Man in Space,​ von Braun 
proposed trips around the moon and back. With forty million Americans viewing 
this program, plans began to be made in Washington. 
 
Back in the Soviet Union, Korolev was working to improve his R-7 rocket, and if it 
succeeded, he could send a satellite to space. After a few failures, Korolev was 
authorized to begin work on his satellite, Sputnik.  
 
Stage 2: The Race Begins 
 
In October 1957, Sputnik became the first man-made satellite in the Earth’s orbit.  
 
This was the kick that America needed to shift into top gear. Many citizens in 
America were in wonder of the feat of human engineering, but most were scared 
of the power the Soviet Union had over the United States. Americans were fearful 
that Sputnik had proven that the Russians were more advanced than the 
Americans, and that the U.S. would become a “second-rate power”. 
 
While America was getting itself together, the Soviet Union pressed on. One 
month later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, marking another important 
milestone in space travel: the first animal to orbit the Earth. A stray dog named 
Laika became the focus of the mission, however, the early satellite proved deadly 
for the animal, and Laika passed away after only 5 hours in space. 
 
Now, after two successful 
Russian satellites were launched 
into space, America was 
desperate to get some footing. So 
desperate that they became 
sloppy. The Navy was the first to 
try, and the Vanguard TV3 was 
the first attempt at an American 
satellite in space.  
 
It failed.

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Due to this failure, von Braun finally got the green light to develop his first 
satellite, dubbed “Explorer 1”. The success of this project ultimately led to the 
creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), signed into 
law by Eisenhower in July 1958. 
 
Less than a year later NASA announced plans to send Americans into space, while 
the Russians attempted to do the same thing. 
In April 1961, the Vostok 1 rocket launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Earth’s 
orbit. Gagarin became a worldwide sensation. Less than a month later Alan 
Shepard became the first American to do so. The Russians seemed to always be 
one step ahead of the Americans. 
 
This changed when Kennedy became president, and proposed to Congress in 
1961 that Americans would step foot on the moon by the end of the decade. 
 
NASA had to step it up. 
 
NASA’s funding and resources increased, and the Apollo program was started in 
order to accomplish Kennedy’s goal. This is when the race began to shift towards 
America. 
 
Stage 3: America Pulls Ahead 
 
At breakneck pace, NASA was performing missions that would lead up to a 
manned mission on the moon. 
 
The Soviet space program began to falter as lead scientist Sergei Korolev received 
less funding, and the crippling blow came when Korolev died in January 1966. 
Von Braun’s rival was dead, and NASA was no longer concerned with the Soviets 
catching up. 
 
Despite a tragic fire halting crewed missions in 1967, the next year Apollo 8 
launched. On Christmas Eve, 1968 the Apollo 8 crew became the first humans to 
travel around the moon. 
 
This was a major accomplishment, but only one year remained before Kennedy’s 
goal would expire. After two more missions and one year later, the time had 
come. 
 
Men were going to walk on the moon. The lifelong dream of Wernher von Braun, 
and the climax of the decade long struggle for scientific advancement had finally 
arrived.  
 
In a February 1969 Interview, Neil Armstrong spoke on his upcoming mission: 
“Who the individual happens to be that get, to make first landing, that's 
happenstance.” 
 
“I see it as a group achievement.” Armstrong spoke for the over 65,000 engineers 
who had worked to make this goal happen.  
 
On July 20th, 1969, 93% of America tuned in to watch. Walter Cronkite reported 
at the time:  
 
"The date's now indelible. It's going to be remembered as long as man survives — 
July 20, 1969 — the day a man reached and walked on the moon. The least of us is 
improved by the things done by the best of us. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are 
the best of us, and they've led us further and higher than we ever imagined we 
were likely to go." 
 
Now we’re back where we started, but where do we go from here? 
 
Stage 4: Onward 
 
Since Apollo 11 landed on the moon, there have been 5 successful trips since, but 
we have not returned since 1972. At that time the public began to wonder why 
the government should spend all that money for essentially the same mission. 
 
The popularity of lunar missions slowed, and NASA eventually stopped sending 
astronauts to the moon.  
 
I sat down with Alex Glocer, a research assistant at Goddard Space Flight Center, 
and discussed NASA’s past and future. 
 
“Lately there’s been a big push towards small satellites, that are maybe the size of 
a cereal box,” he said, “they’re also a lot cheaper.” 
 
This shift from fantastic manned missions to smaller probes and satellites has 
happened for a number of reasons, budget cuts not being the least of which.  
 
“Also unmanned missions can go places you couldn’t possibly send an astronaut,” 
Glocer posits.  
 
Missions to Mars are still decades away, but we can still visit other planets via 
rovers.  
 
Looking toward the future, Glocer puts his faith in exoplanets, planets that exist 
outside our solar system. Some may be even able to support life.  
 
“There’s a lot of open questions about this, but it’s still an extremely exciting 
time.”  
 
Humankind may now be on the path to another Apollo-level triumph. ​☆