Man on the Moon

A: It must have been a fantastic feeling to climb out of that space ship and step onto the Moon.

B: It sure was. Half the world was watching on TV as Neil Armstrong made that first footprint on the Moon’s surface.

A: What was the remark he made at the time?

B: I think it was, “One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.”

A: When you compare a trip to the Moon with a voyage to a planet; I guess it is a very small step.

B: Even that small step took a lot of planning, and testing, before anyone could set foot on the Moon.

A: Yes. I read about all the flights that went up beforehand. America and Russia started their competition back in the late 50’s

B: The US sent up 15 rockets from 1958 till 1969, until Apollo 11 finally landed the first men on the Moon. It was all part of the “cold war” in those days.

A: Over the same period, Russia sent up 16 rockets and was the first nation to actually crash one of their rockets on the surface. That was in September 1959.

B: What’s happened on the Moon since that first soft landing and the first Moonwalk?

A: Since then, America has made 5 successful manned flights between 1969 and 1972 and put men on the Moon each time.

B: What do you mean, “successful,” did one of them fail?

A: Yes. Apollo 13 failed when an explosion destroyed the power and propulsion systems. The Astronauts survived by using the landing module as a lifeboat.

B: That was lucky. But, what about the Russians, what have they been doing since?

A: Actually, the Russians launched 9 flights between 1969 and 1976 but they used remote controlled, automatic machines to get samples and explore the surface.

B: That makes a lot of sense and would, probably, be a lot less expensive.

A: Was 1976 the last time anyone did any work on the Moon, apart from the ongoing study of the samples brought back?

B: No, not quite the last. America sent up their Clementine rocket in 1994 to photograph, and map the surface and Russia sent up their Lunar Prospector in 1998 to do the same thing.