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To the Moon by Michael Signal
(1 ) On April 12 , 1960 , Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space . It was the second time that the Soviet Union had beaten the United States into Space . The Soviet Union had launched the first satellite , Sputnik , into orbit three years earlier . Americans had been beaten to the punch , twice . They didn't want to be beaten again . No one was more determined for an American space victory than President John F . Kennedy . In 1961 , he promised to land an American astronaut on the moon and return him safely to Earth . It would take the most powerful engine ever created to make that promise come true , but on July 20 , 1969 , American astronauts walked on the moon . They returned safely to Earth on July 24 .
(2 ) The Soviet Union doesn't exist today . Most of what used to be the Soviet Union is modern-day Russia , but in the 1960s , Americans saw the Soviet Union as a huge threat . For decades , the United States and the Soviet Union were locked against each other in the Cold War . There was no fighting in the Cold War , but there was a lot of showing off . Each side had to prove that it was more powerful than the other . The Soviet launch of the first satellite and the first person into space seemed to prove that their space program was the best in the world . People of the United States did not want the Soviet Union to be best at anything . America had to do something big . The Soviet Union had only sent people and things into orbit around the Earth . President Kennedy made a gamble . If the United States really could put a man on the moon , it would prove that the American space program was the best . But it would also be a huge defeat if the United States failed .
(3 ) The Soviet Union and the United States had both launched people and satellites into space , but they returned quickly to Earth or stayed in orbit around the planet . Sending men to the moon would be a much more difficult task . The first rockets that blasted into space were not nearly powerful enough to reach the moon . The United States needed to build a new rocket . A team of brilliant scientists designed the Saturn V rocket . It stood over 360 feet tall and carried about one million gallons of explosive fuel . The Saturn V's F-1 rocket engines are the most powerful rocket engines ever produced . It was the only machine that would be able to place American astronauts on the moon .
(4 ) It took four days for Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin , and Michael Collins to reach the moon . But they did reach the moon , and they returned to Earth safely . The 1969 moon landing put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union for good in their Cold War battles over space . That victory was due in part to the determination of an American President and the American people , and in part to the mighty Saturn V rocket .