The Apollo program,also known as Project Apollo,was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury,which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25,1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly,preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo.
The Cuban Missile Crisis,also known as the October Crisis in Cuba,or the Caribbean Crisis,was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union,when American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis lasted from 16 to 28 October 1962. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war.
Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman,John F. Kennedy,Lyndon B. Johnson,and Jimmy Carter. His official government positions were White House Counsel (1946–1950),Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (1963–1968),and Secretary of Defense (1968–1969);Clifford was also influential in his role as an unofficial,informal presidential adviser in various issues. A successful Washington,D.C.,lawyer,he was known for his elite clientele,charming manners,and impeccable suits.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals,the United States and the Soviet Union,to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and had its peak with the more particular Moon Race to land on the Moon between the US moonshot and Soviet moonshot programs. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites,robotic space probes to the Moon,Venus,and Mars,and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
Eugene Francis Kranz is an American aerospace engineer who served as NASA's second Chief Flight Director,directing missions of the Mercury,Gemini and Apollo programs,including the first lunar landing mission,Apollo 11. He directed the successful efforts by the Mission Control team to save the crew of Apollo 13,and was portrayed in the 1995 film of the same name by actor Ed Harris. He characteristically wore a close-cut flattop hairstyle and the dapper "mission" vests (waistcoats) of different styles and materials made by his wife,Marta Kranz,for his Flight Director missions.
The Cold War (1953–1962) discusses the period within the Cold War from the end of the Korean War in 1953 to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Following the death of Joseph Stalin earlier in 1953,new leaders attempted to "de-Stalinize" the Soviet Union causing unrest in the Eastern Bloc and members of the Warsaw Pact. In spite of this there was a calming of international tensions,the evidence of which can be seen in the signing of the Austrian State Treaty reuniting Austria,and the Geneva Accords ending fighting in Indochina. However,this period of good happenings was only partial with an expensive arms race continuing during the period and a less alarming,but very expensive space race occurring between the two superpowers as well. The addition of African countries to the stage of cold war,such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo joining the Soviets,caused even more unrest in the West.
William Stuart Symington III was an American businessman and Democratic politician from Missouri. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976.
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2,on 13 September 1959.
In the United States,during the Cold War,the missile gap was the perceived superiority of the number and power of the USSR's missiles in comparison with those of the U.S.. The gap in the ballistic missile arsenals did not exist except in exaggerated estimates,made by the Gaither Committee in 1957 and in United States Air Force (USAF) figures. Even the contradictory CIA figures for the USSR's weaponry,which showed a clear advantage for the US,were far above the actual count. Like the bomber gap of only a few years earlier,it was soon demonstrated that the gap was entirely fictional.
Jerome Bert Wiesner was a professor of electrical engineering,chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan,Wiesner was associate director of the university's radio broadcasting service and provided electronic and acoustical assistance to the National Music Camp at Interlochen,Michigan. During World War II,he worked on microwave radar development at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. He worked briefly after the war at the Los Alamos National Laboratory,then returned to MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics from 1946 to 1961. After serving as Kennedy's science advisor,he returned to MIT,becoming its president from 1971 to 1980.
The Executive Committee of the National Security Council was a body of United States government officials that convened to advise President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It was composed of the regular members of the National Security Council,along with other men whose advice the President deemed useful during the crisis. EXCOMM was formally established by National Security Action Memorandum 196 on October 22,1962. It was made up of twelve full members in addition to the president. Advisers frequently sat in on the meetings,which were held in the Cabinet Room of the White House's West Wing and secretly recorded by tape machines activated by Kennedy. None of the other committee members knew the meetings were being recorded,save probably the president's brother,Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,often referred to as JFK or Jack,was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War,and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat,Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to his presidency.
Joseph Francis Shea was an American aerospace engineer and NASA manager. Born in the New York City borough of the Bronx,he was educated at the University of Michigan,receiving a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics in 1955. After working for Bell Labs on the radio inertial guidance system of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile,he was hired by NASA in 1961. As Deputy Director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight,and later as head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office,Shea played a key role in shaping the course of the Apollo program,helping to lead NASA to the decision in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous and supporting "all up" testing of the Saturn V rocket. While sometimes causing controversy within the agency,Shea was remembered by his former colleague George Mueller as "one of the greatest systems engineers of our time".
Samuel Cochran Phillips was a United States Air Force general who served as Director of NASA's Apollo program from 1964 to 1969,as commander of the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) from 1969 to 1972,as the seventh Director of the National Security Agency from 1972 to 1973,and as commander of the Air Force Systems Command from 1973 to 1975.
John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20,1961,and ended with his assassination on November 22,1963. Kennedy,a Democrat from Massachusetts,took office following his narrow victory over Republican incumbent vice president Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The space policy of the United States includes both the making of space policy through the legislative process,and the implementation of that policy in the United States' civilian and military space programs through regulatory agencies. The early history of United States space policy is linked to the US–Soviet Space Race of the 1960s,which gave way to the Space Shuttle program. At the moment,the US space policy is aimed at the exploration of the Moon and the subsequent colonization of Mars.
The United States foreign policy during the presidency of John F. Kennedy from 1961 to 1963 included diplomatic and military initiatives in Western Europe,Southeast Asia,and Latin America,all conducted amid considerable Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe. Kennedy deployed a new generation of foreign policy experts,dubbed "the best and the brightest". In his inaugural address Kennedy encapsulated his Cold War stance:"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate".
"We choose to go to the Moon",formally the Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort,is a September 12,1962,speech by United States President John F. Kennedy to bolster public support for his proposal to land a man on the Moon before 1970 and bring him safely back to Earth. Kennedy gave the speech,largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen,to a large crowd at Rice University Stadium in Houston,Texas. In his speech,Kennedy characterized space as a new frontier,invoking the pioneer spirit that dominated American folklore. He infused the speech with a sense of urgency and destiny,and emphasized the freedom enjoyed by Americans to choose their destiny rather than have it chosen for them. Although he called for competition with the Soviet Union,Kennedy also proposed making the Moon landing a joint project. The speech resonated widely and is still remembered,although at the time there was disquiet about the cost and value of the Moon-landing effort. Kennedy's goal was realized posthumously,in July 1969,with the Apollo program's successful Apollo 11 mission.
Vanguard TV-2,also called Vanguard Test Vehicle-Two,was the third suborbital test flight of a Vanguard rocket as part of Project Vanguard. Successful TV-2 followed the successful launch of Vanguard TV-0 a one-stage rocket launched in December 1956 and Vanguard TV-1 a two-stage rocket launched in May 1957.
Willis Harlow Shapley was an American civil servant best known as the third-ranking administrator for NASA during the Apollo program.
