The Apollo 11 Moon Landing: Space Race

There have been many turning points all throughout history, and they all have had a significant impact on modern society. Turning points have always been a big change in society as for some turning points, society has gone from one way to a completely different way. One particular turning point that has very much been important to history, and has changed a lot of the future, is the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in 1969. 

At the time, the Moon Landing was so important to America because it was a whole new place to explore. America also wanted to get to the moon because they and the Soviet Union had been having the famous Space Race, the race to be the best in space flight. The landing on the moon was so interesting to America because humans had never been exposed to the conditions of the moon, the low gravity, and other conditions that were very different from the conditions of the earth. 

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing was a turning point in history because it opened up a new range of information for science and technology, it also led to the slowing of the Space Race, and it also allowed medical researchers to try new things. The Apollo 11 Moon landing led to many major advancements in science and technology. The moon was an entirely new place to explore for scientists, and it was a new place to study. At the time there had been many speculations and theories about the moon, but when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin finally landed on the moon, many of these speculations and theories could be proved. Many of the things that were made to protect astronauts in space were used for other things in the future. One scientific advancement they made was with the “cooling space suit”. When they landed on the moon, they realized that the spacesuits were extremely protective and that they kept the person cool, and they could be used for many other things. Nowadays, people use a very similar model of the suit as Hazmat suits, for NASCAR racers, firefighters, and more. Another advancement was made from the “moon boot”. The boot was built to absorb shock, have easy control, keep astronauts balanced, and more. But the technology used to make the boots this way was used later on in the making of athletic shoes. One last major technological advancement was the solar panel. The technology used for the Apollo Lunar Module, the device that helped with the descent of the ship to the moon’s surface, was later used in the creation of the solar panel used to acquire energy from the sun. 

For many years before the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, there had been a war happening, the Cold War. It was a series of competitions and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, having to do with contradictory ideas about politics and communism, that nearly ended up in nuclear war. It was the “Cold War” because neither the US nor the USSR declared war on the other. One of the biggest, most famous rivalries that were part of the Cold War was the Space Race, the race to be the best at space flight. It had also mainly been a race to be the first to land a human on the moon and get them back to earth safely. President John F. Kennedy famously said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”, so the US set their minds to it. And on June 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, laid his foot successfully on the moon’s surface.