The Space Age began in earnest in the late 1950s, with America and the Soviet Union locked in the Cold War. A space race began between the two, it was a way of measuring each nation's scientific and technological advances in the fast paced twentieth century. The Soviets struck first, when the Luna 1 completed the first lunar flyby in January 1959, they quickly followed this in September of that year with the first impact on the moon with the Luna 2.

President John F. Kennedy threw down the gauntlet in 1961, declaring that America would place a man on the moon by the end of the decade - the race was on! From 1961 to 1965 the US Ranger program sent nine missions to the moon with the purpose of gathering data. In 1966, the Soviets beat the Americans by landing the first craft on the moon, Luna 9, without it crashing. The Americans achieved the same feat, three months later with their Surveyor 1. The American program was tragically thrown into disarray in 1967, when Apollo 1 was destroyed by fire, killing the three astronauts on board.

However, in 1968, the Americans launched the first manned craft into space, Apollo 7 orbited the earth one hundred and sixty three times and spent a total of eleven days in space. Apollo 8 was launched in December 1968, containing the Saturn V rocket which was powerful enough to take the spacecraft into lunar orbit, it circled the moon and successfully returned to Earth. On 20 July 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Over the next four years NASA launched a further six lunar missions, all of which were successful with the exception of Apollo 13. In the course of the Apollo program, twelve astronauts landed on the moon but since 1972, no lunar missions have being launched.



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