OH+Research

Oral History Topic Summary

**Interview subject** - Marry Damron (my grandmother) In 1957 the Soviets acquired the very first satellite to ever orbit the Earth, it was called Sputnik. There was a lot of tension in the U.S. over the launch of Sputnik and it only added to the publics fear of a nuclear war catastrophe. Sputnik's launch demonstrated that the Soviets had missiles powerful enough to hit the U.S. from the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower, thinking that the U.S. had superior missiles, formed NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was supposed to coordinate missile development and space exploration, from the beginning the space program would be associated forever with the government's nuclear weapons program. On December 6, 1957 the United States was publicly humiliated with the failure of the launch of their first satellite. On January 31, 1958, the United States redeemed itself with the launch of their first satellite, Explorer 1. Two years later, in October of 1959, when the Soviets landed their first probe on the moon the U.S. saw they needed to pick up the pace.
 * Topic ** - The Space Program

President Truman promised that the U.S. would have put a man on the moon within the decade no matter what the cost in 1961. Nasa received large amounts of public and political support, and a large amount of funds. Project Mercury was established with the purpose of getting an American into orbit. Despite the U.S.'s efforts the Soviets got the first man to orbit the Earth, Yuri Gagarin, the U.S. responded by putting Alan B. Shepard into space, although he did not orbit the Earth. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, he made three full revolutions before returning to base. Flights by Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, and Gordon Cooper were made after that tested various components of the Mercury capsules and conducted scientific experiments in space. The Mercury program's success regained America's pride in the space program.

The Gemini program followed the Mercury. The programs purpose related to the needs for the lunar landing, it included testing a space walk, docking two crafts in space, and spending longer periods of time in space. The Soviets came out on top again with the first successful space walk, but the U.S. got theirs with Ed White on June 3,1965 which lasted 20 min. The Gemini program launched its first spacecraft and successfully manually maneuvered it into space, a prerequisite for the lunar landing. The last Gemini mission, Gemini 12, created a record space walk time of over 5 hours. Many other of the missions that were part of the Gemini program succeeded and overall the program had met or surpassed its expectations.

NASA followed the Gemini program with the Apollo program, which had an ultimate goal of sending a man to the moon. On January 27, 1967, a tragedy occurred with the Apollo program. Fire broke out in an Apollo spacecraft during a test simulation, killing three of the astronauts inside. The Apollo spacecraft was redesigned and vastly improved because of the disaster, but not without a serious blow in the morale of those working for NASA and among the American public. Manned space flights were temporarily suspended after the accident, but NASA continued towards its ultimate goal. After many unmanned flights the Apollo 7 was launched with 3 astronauts to conduct tests in October of 1969. The Apollo 8 successfully orbited the moon. Later the famous Apollo 11 was sent into space manned by Michael Collins, Edward Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. The craft was, called Eagle. Armstrong told the world after they landed, "The // Eagle // has landed." On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 P.M., Armstrong stepped out of the spacecraft and walked on the moon while T.V. and radio stations across the country broadcast his famous words to the public: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." An American flag was left on the moon to commemorate all of the American and Soviet who died in the pursuit of further space exploration. A plaque was left too that read: "Here Man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

"space exploration." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 May 2010. . Veve, Thomas D. "space race." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 May 2010. .