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KF5JRV > TODAY 14.09.18 13:23l 44 Lines 2309 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 21260_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sept 14
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IW0QNL<VE2PKT<N9PMO<N9LYA<KF5JRV
Sent: 180914/1115Z 21260@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.16
A Soviet rocket crashes into the moon’s surface, becoming the first
man-made object sent from earth to reach the lunar surface. The event
gave the Soviets a short-lived advantage in the “space raceö and
prompted even greater effort by the United States to develop its own
space program.
In 1957, the Soviets shocked the United States by becoming the first
nation to launch a satellite into orbit around the earth. Sputnik, as it
was called, frightened many Americans, who believed that the Soviets
would soon develop an entire new class of weapons that could be fired
from space. U.S. officials were especially concerned, for the success of
Sputnik was a direct rebuke to American claims of technological and
scientific superiority over the communist regime in Russia. It was a
tremendous propaganda victory for the Soviets, and gave them an edge in
attracting less-developed nations into the Soviet orbit with promises of
technological aid and assistance.
The United States responded by accelerating its own space program, and
just months after Sputnik, an American satellite went into orbit. In
September 1959, the Soviets upped the ante considerably with the
announcement that a rocket carrying the flag of the Soviet Union had
crashed onto the moon’s surface. In Washington, a muted congratulation
was sent to the Soviet scientists who managed the feat. At the same
time, however, the United States warned the Soviet Union that sending
the Russian flag to the moon gave the Soviets no territorial rights over
the celestial body. Vice President Richard Nixon expressed some sour
grapes by noting that it took the Soviet four tries to hit the moon and
reassured Americans that “We are way aheadö in the space race.
Nixon’s reassurances aside, the Soviet success in sending a rocket to
the moon provoked even greater effort by the United States to gain an
advantage in the space race. In 1960, presidential candidate John F.
Kennedy made it one of his campaign themes. After winning the election,
President Kennedy increased spending for the space program and vowed
that America would send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. In
1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on
the moon.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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