SPACE CONQUEST

IES JOSEP MIQUEL GUÀRDIA

Mercè Batlle, Ana Carreras, Fernando Pons 1rbatx A

In this article we are going to comment some topics about the first man landing on the moon. The first discussion is about the space exploration race between the Soviets and the Americans.- It developed the appearance of other facts that we are going to talk about too.

The space race was a competition between the United States and the Soviets (USSR). It lasted for about eighteen years (1957-1975). It became an important part of cultural and technological rivalry between these two world powers during the Cold War. Both sides strove for exploring the space with artificial satellites, sending people to the space and landing on the moon. This fact had different repercussions and it was followed by lots of people in the world, because it was a very important event for mankind.

In our opinion, it was a very important technological and scientific progress, but it was a huge waste of money too. And we ask: why did they invest so much money on this project if it didn’t help the mankind directly?

Firstly, we must take into account that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was USA’s president and he wanted to win the space race, so he didn’t mind to do what he had to. This was the main reason why the first man landing was the priority of the NASA and they invested so much money in the project. Kennedy’s words were “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”. Our opinion is that his intention of putting a man on the moon before a decade was too ambitious and he risked too much. JFK gave priority to achieve this goal over his country wellness.

When the Soviets realized what the Americans wanted to do, they sent a manned rocket to do a spacewalk, but it nearly failed. After the Americans achieved their goal, the Soviets leadership changed, and they didn’t give so much value to win the race. The Americans considered they had won.

In conclusion, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”.