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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.09.14 17:02l 53 Lines 2374 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 35871_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Sep 14
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 140914/1500Z 35871@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Sep 14, 1959:
Soviet probe reaches the moon
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
race" 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 ahead" 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, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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