RFT 310: The Space Race
November 18, 1956: "We will bury you!" (Мы вас похороним!) is a phrase that was used by Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow
Sputnik - Oct 4 1957 - beginning of space race
Sputnik II w/ dog Laika: Nov 3, 1957
NASA: Oct 1, 1958
1959: Khrushchev visits America
1961: JFK says "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard piloted the Mercury-Redstone mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. He named his spacecraft, Mercury Spacecraft 7, Freedom 7. It was launched atop a Redstone rocket. According to Gene Kranz in his book Failure Is Not an Option, "When reporters asked Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, 'The fact that every part of this ship was built by the lowest bidder.'".
September 12, 1962: Kennedy's speech at Rice University: deliver a man to the moon and safely return him to earth during this decade. 12 years from Sputnick to first man on moon. "But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Nov 22, 1963: Assassination of JFK. In an interview with Theodore White of Life Magazine, Jacqueline Kennedy said “There will be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot” referring to the broadway musical Camelot, which was supposedly a perfect place.
Nov 28, 1963: Cape Canaveral renamed Cape Kennedy.
Mar 8, 1965: 3500 marines land at China Beach, Vietnam war escalated.
Jan 27, 1967: Apollo 1 fire kills Gus Grissom, Ed White (first American to walk in space), Roger Chaffee.
Jan 30, 1968: Tet offensive. Lunar New Year, 85,000 NVA/VC attacked south. Terrible defeat for North - 5000 NVA killed, vs. 249 Americans and 500 S. Viets. Cronkite (most trusted man in America): "mired in stalemate".
May 1968: Neil Armstrong bails out of Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-026-DFRC.html
1968: Movie 2001, A Space Odyssey
Christmas, 1968: Apollo 8 circled moon, transmitted Christmas message.
July 20, 1969: First step on moon.
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