Earth to Moon Race
In the 1950's the Soviet Union began experimenting with space travel. In 1961 the Soviet's sent Yuri Gagarin into space upon which he completed a full orbit. America was disgruntled by the Soviet Union's accomplishment since they did not believe the first man in space should've been a communist. Afterwards, the U.S began their own experiments with space exploration. We started missions with the Earth's orbit and so on. Some obstacles we faced were being able to conduct a "space rendezvous" which is when two individual space crafts meet in space and connect. After the obstacles were surpassed, the United States faced the final challenge of their space race- getting the first man on the moon. This was necessary since the Soviet's already beat us to the first man in space, now we just had to beat them to the moon.
In 1961 during John F. Kennedy's presidency Mr. Kennedy made a speech upon which he promised that United States would have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The economic state of the nation during the Apollo and Mercury missions was in a long period of economic expansion, but sure enough on July 20, 1969 millions of American's filled were with pride as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrid became the first men, and Americans on the moon.