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Christina Barron
Publisher of KidsPost, a Washington Post section for ages 7 to 13
This story is part of a series on human spaceflight in the United States.
The lunar module Apollo 11 rises on July 21, 1969, after the historic landing of the Moon. The mission had placed the United States ahead of the Soviet Union in a race to space. America is planning to return to the moon as part of a new mission. (NASA via AP)
On May 25, 1961, President John Kennedy challenged lawmakers, the new US space agency, and the American people.
"I think this country should commit to reaching the goal, before the end of this decade, to land a man on the moon and send him back to Earth safely," he said. said Kennedy in a speech to Congress.
It was an ambitious goal. But in July 1969, NASA would succeed. Apollo 11 – with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard – lands on the lunar surface and brings it back to Earth. This moonshot was not an agreement to a shot. The astronauts have returned to the moon five times for further exploration.
NASA announced this summer its intention to return there in the 2020s, about 50 years after the last astronaut visit. But this time, the moon is not considered a destination. It's a stop on the way to the next space goal: send humans to Mars. To understand this new era of manned flights, it is important to review what Kennedy set in motion 57 years ago.
A field of test
When Kennedy pleaded with Congress, the United States had just launched their first manned spacecraft. Alan Shepard flew a 15-minute suborbital flight, traveling 115 km and returning to Earth. The Soviet Union had sent the first man into space several weeks before. Yuri Gagarin's theft had not only lasted longer – 108 minutes – but he had also made a single Earth orbit. The United States was embarrassed. He did not want the Soviets – the only other world superpower at the time – to embark on space exploration.
"There was a battle for hearts and minds," says Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator of space history at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. "Beat the Soviets in space was important for the US place in the world."
The president had discussed with NASA scientists to find out what a feat was within reach of the United States and perhaps further for the Soviets.
"The United States at the time was better at landings," said Muir-Harmony. "The Soviet Union at the time had problems with landings."
They chose to land on the Moon, which averages 240,000 km. (The distance changes because its orbit is not a circle.) At that time, Gagarin had traveled the furthest from Earth – 320 km. Muir-Harmony said Kennedy deliberately chose not to aim faster than the Soviets.
"If we offer this program, it's really bold. . . they will have to invest in new technologies, "said Muir-Harmony. Congress members would discuss spending of nearly $ 1.7 billion on the space program for the coming year.
This money and the billions of additional dollars approved in the 1960s have not only been used to finance the Apollo missions, but also the rockets and other technologies used by NASA over the past decades. That too was part of Kennedy's speech to Congress.
"This suggests one day a way to explore the space even more exciting and ambitious, perhaps beyond the moon, up to the end of the solar system itself," she said. he declared.
Back and forth
NASA has sent a spacecraft to explore the farthest reaches of our solar system and beyond, but no human has been included. Instead, astronauts have studied the effects of life and work in space orbiting the Earth, first on Skylab and, since 2000, on the International Space Station (ISS). .
Missions have become more collaborative than competitive. NASA has four international partners: space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe. More than 100 astronauts and cosmonauts stayed on the ISS for long-term missions. And private companies have partnered with NASA to bring supplies to the station. Two companies, Boeing and SpaceX, are expected to become the first private companies to transport astronauts to the ISS.
Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams trains on April 3 in a model of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX and Boeing are private companies that have partnered with NASA to transport astronauts to the International Space Station from next year. (SpaceX)
NASA aims to work with these partners and others as part of its human missions to Mars. Agency executive Jim Bridenstine said in September that the plan to travel to Mars involved returning to the moon with landers, rovers, robots and humans.
"The glory of the moon is that it's only a three-day trip home," Bridenstine told members of Congress. "So we can prove all technologies and reduce all risks."
And in case of emergency, NASA can quickly bring astronauts home, he said. The trip from Mars, which is on average 140 million kilometers from Earth, takes about eight months.
Chris Ferguson, a former NASA astronaut who is now working for Boeing, and Williams are training in an emergency evacuation of the crew access tower at the Kennedy Space Center in June . Ferguson should be on the Boeing test flight; Williams should be part of Boeing's first mission on the ISS. (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)
Bridenstine announced in October that NASA planned to send scientific equipment to the moon in 2019 or 2020. A human journey orbiting the moon would be launched in 2023. An orbital "bridge" or lunar space station would follow. . The bridge would allow humans and equipment to reach the surface of the moon. Finally, it would serve as a launching pad for Mars.
These lunar missions will be similar to Apollo as the United States wants to prove its leadership in space exploration. But Muir-Harmony pointed out an important difference.
"We want to expand our knowledge of the universe. We want to advance science, "she said. "There is no end goal."
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