Apollo 11

The Moon Landing

20th July 1969

It’s 4.15am on Wednesday 16th July 1969 and Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (below L - R) wake up knowing that today is a special day – they are about to make history.

But where did it all begin?

Robert Goddard in 1926 became the

first person to launch a liquid

fuelled rocket. It may have looked

like a climbing frame, but it

worked – just!!

Despite Goddard’s achievements, Germany was the most successful with rocket development over the next 20 years.Werner von Braun is acclaimed as being the father of modern rocketry. A Prussian, Von Braun worked with the Nazi's in their rocket program until the end of the war. Following the war he worked in the US Army developing rockets which would lead to the beginning of the US space program

The Russian satellite effort was led by Sergei Korolev, though his name was kept secret until after his death in 1966.

Korolev was born in 1907, and trained at university to become an aerospace engineer. In the 1930s he worked on developing long range missiles. In 1938, he was arrested on trumped-up charges and sent to prison; he spent the next few years in several forced labour camps.

During WWII he and other engineers were sent to prison design camps, where imprisoned engineers designed rockets for military use. After the war Korolev was released from prison and continued work on long range ballistic missiles.

On October 1957 the Soviet government announced that it had launched the first satellite, named Sputnik 1 (sputnik is Russian for fellow traveller).

Sputnik 2 carried Laika, a Siberian husky, which became the first animal to go into orbit.Laika was kept alive for 10 days to prove that it was possible to survive in the conditions of space. Unfortunately for Laika, no one had worked out how to get her down again as the capsule was not designed to return to Earth, and Laika died in Space.

Imagine: The United States is technologically behind in a race with its adversary, the Soviet Union, to explore the new territory of outer space. You have been chosen from a pool of 110 qualified pilots to be one of seven men to go into outer space. You have trained long hours, both physically and mentally, for this mission. You have watched the explosions of many of the same kind of rockets that will be carrying you into space. Now you sit atop one of those rockets filled with explosive rocket fuel. Mission Control is counting down. The world is watching you on television. In minutes, you will be either in outer space or dead from a massive explosion. There is no turning back. The fate of the fledgling space program is riding on you and the success of your mission. These were the Mercury astronauts.

On April 12th 1961, the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin into space. – humiliating the US and Nasa. He orbited the world. The American replied 22 days later with Alan Shepard, whose entire mission lasted 15 mins

and was more of a space-hop!

“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. No single space project in this period will more impressive to mankind”

25th May 1961

John Glenn – first American into orbitFeb 1962

June 19, 1963 - Russian Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman in space

Gemini Astronauts – 2 manned American flight. The Russian replied by cramming 3 people in!

Alexey Leonov – first man to complete a space walk.18th March 1965. The first American, Ed White, did it in June 1966.

Preparations for the Apollo program began long before the manned Apollo missions were

flown. Test flights of the Saturn I booster began in October 1961 and lasted until

September 1964.

Apollo 1Unlaunched - On 27 January 1967 Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed when a fire erupted in their Apollo spacecraft during a test on the launch pad.

The next few flights were either test flights or manned orbits.

The main reason the Americans were suddenly becoming more successful was due to the death in 1966 of Sergei Korolev. The instrumental driver of

the USSR’s Space program

Earth Rise – taken on Apollo 8 mission

8.32am Wednesday 16 July 1969 – watched by the world - history was to be made.

The Apollo spacecraft, bound for the moon, consisted of a conical Command Module, in which the three U.S. astronauts would fly, connected to a cylindrical Service Module containing the power, propulsion, and life-support systems. It was called “Columbia”.

Michael Collins will remain on board as the command module pilot waiting to pick up Neil and Buzz

The lunar module (called “Eagle”), piloted by Neil Armstrong alongside Buzz Aldrin, descends towards

the moon.

3.17pm – The Eagle has landed!

On July 24th – four days later – Columbia re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. It was travelling at 39,750 km/h and glowing with

heat. As the capsule fell, three sets of parachutes opened to slow its descent. By the time the blackened spacecraft reached the surface of the sea, it was falling quite slowly, at just 9 m/s. The capsule splashed down in the pacific, just 20 miles from the

recovery ship . They had travelled 800,000 km

They were kept in isolation for three weeks, as scientists were concerned that they may have brought back unknown germs from the moon.

One of the astronauts on Apollo 11, this man also

walked on the MoonThe first man on the Moon

This man read from the book of Genesis as he orbited the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968

The third astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission, this man

made sure the others returned safely from the

Moon's surface.

A Russian, this man was the first to orbit the Earth

Now a US Senator, this man was the first American to

orbit Earth. He went back to space in the fall of 1998

The second astronaut on the Apollo 13 mission

This man commanded the famous Apollo 13 mission

This man didn't go on the Apollo 13 mission because doctors thought he had the

measles

The first American to fly in space.

The third astronaut on the Apollo 13 mission

Use the internet to solve this wordsearch

Task 2…Create a one page (A4) biography about one of the people named in this presentation.

You should include:•Dates and events•Information about their life•At least 5 pictures•Less well known information