Caldwell, Chandler
Davidson, 6R, Period 5
11 March 2008
Space Race
Is the United States of America able to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth? The astronauts of Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins, believed that they could (Apollo Project). On July 20, 1969 the American heroes sat at the top of a 363-foot behemoth, the Saturn V Rocket. The astronauts sat anxiously while the rocket launched them into space shooting out 200,000 pounds of thrust (Moon Landing). Seventy-six hours after leaving the comfort of earth, their command module “The Eagle” entered lunar orbit and slowly descended into the Sea of Tranquility, where scientific experiments were performed. After a few exhilarating hours on the moon and a phone call from the president Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin re-entered The Eagle, proving that there are no limits that man cannot reach. This act concluded the space race, which has greatly benefited the technology of our modern day.
Weather Satellites are one of the most beneficial advancements during the space race. The possibilities that weather satellites hold are countless. After the launch of Sputnik 1 the space race had really become heated (Whalen 1). America felt humiliated, embarrassed, and thought that the world would no longer respect them because they were no longer the leader on science and technology (Apollo Project). The American government believed that other countries, seeing that a communist Soviet Union was the world’s pristine power, would start to believe that capitalist government was not as effective as they thought, causing a national crisis ( ). Three years after the launch of Sputnik, America launched its first weather satellite, TIROS 1. TIROS stands for Television and Infra-Red Observation Satellite. These satellites provide the world with real time coverage of weather in their area. This helped many countries that are prone to natural disasters.
Before weather...