On May 25, 1961 President Kennedy Announced: “I Believe This Nation Should Commi

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Term Paper Title	On May 25, 1961 President Kennedy Announced: “I Believe This Nation Should Commi
# of Words	1248
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.99

On May 25, 1961 President Kennedy announced:  “I believe this nation should commit
itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and
returning him safely to Earth.”  In pursuit of this goal, it was considered necessary to
conduct several unmanned test flights and supporting programs, including the Mercury,
Gemini, Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter.
     The Mercury program aimed at meeting the Soviet challenge and putting American
astronauts into orbit around the earth.  The Mecury-Redstone launched the first U.S.
astronaut into space on May 5, 1961.  Alan Shepard spent about 15 minutes in space
during a sub-orbital mission aboard the Mercury capsule “Freedom 7.”  Gus Grissom
followed in his Mercury craft, the “Liberty Bell,” on an identical mission shortly after.
Since the Redstone was only “one-staged”, it did not have the propulsive power to put
two astronauts in space on the same mission.  The Mecury-Atlas launch vehicle was a
“one-and-a-half” stage vehicle which used an ultra-light-weight structure to reduce the
lift-off weight of the rocket.  Even with this development, it can barely make it into a
low-altitude Earth orbit.  This modified vehicle launched John Glenn in his “Friendship 7”
capsule into three Earth orbits on February 20, 1962.  He was followed by astronauts
Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, and Gordon Cooper in Mercury missions of somewhat
longer duration.
     The Gemini program was the next major space activity.  Its two-stage design
permitted two men to ride into space together so that they could conduct “extra vehicular
activities”, or EVA’s.  On June 3, 1965, Ed White took a daring step out of the Gemini 4
capsule into space.  There he somersaulted, floated lazily on his back, pirouetted, and
stood grinning like a kid on Gemini’s titanium hull for 21 minutes.  The Gemini capsule
was also designed to use fuel cells, which is one of the first technologies required for lunar
landing.
     The Ranger series was the first American unmanned spacecraft to land on the
Moon.  The idea was that the spacecraft were going to fly straight into the Moon and
would be destroyed on impact, so the pictures had to be sent back as quickly as they were
taken.  The first few Ranger shots (August, 1961 - October, 1962) failed for a variety of
reasons, not all connected with the spacecraft itself.  However, Ranger 4 did reach the
Moon on April 26, 1962, being the first American spacecraft to do so.
     The Surveyor series was v...

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