Excerpt from “F-0051A The Flight of Apollo 11,” Digital Public Library of America,
https://dp.la/item/53b01d4d297ff645bafa2bf99c069f89.
BREAKING PHYSICAL BARRIERS
The Space Race broke several important physical barriers within the realm of space, including the barrier of the Earth's Atmosphere, and the barrier of the moon's surface.
On October 4th, 1957 the Soviets launched a low-orbit satellite called the Sputnik 1 using an R-7 missile. This event broke the barrier of space for the first time, and paved the way for all space travel ahead. The Sputnik 1 is a satellite that is around the size and shape of a beach ball at 23 inches across, and it weighed 184 pounds. It contained a sphere pressurized with nitrogen, which held batteries, and radio transmitters. The purpose of the satellite was to be a radio transmitter, which sent a specific set of beeps back to Earth for 21 days until its batteries died. The launch of this satellite took the US by surprise, as they thought they were ahead of the Soviets and did not expect them to have a launch. Immediately, the entire country began to panic. The USA began to push their space program very hard, in order to not fall too far behind the Soviets, and on January 31, 1958, they launced the Explorer 1 satellite.
Sputnik 1 Satellite,
Zak, Anatoly. “Sputnik Design.” Sputnik Design, 4 Oct. 2017, www.russianspaceweb.com/sputnik_design.html.
Model of the Explorer 1 Satellite,
“Satellite, Explorer I,” Digital Public Library of America,
The world was changed 3:17 pm EST on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, breaking a huge barrier. The Apollo 11 mission was a groudnbreaking event, as it was the first time a human made phsycial contact with the moon, and it officially ended the Space Race and turned a new page in space exploration. The crew consisted of commander Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, and command module pilot Michael Collins. The Saturn V vehicle was launched at 8:32 am EST on July 16 from the Kennedy Space Center, and landed safely back on Earth's surface at 11:50 am EST on July 24. The vehicle was very similar form previous Apollo missions, and it only varied from Apollo 10 as the lunar module was adjusted in order to hold equipment for scientific tests on the moons surface.