[ad_1]
By Pat Springer
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Two questions define the youth of my baby boom generation. Where were you when President Kennedy was shot? Where were you when we landed on the moon? Both times we stopped what we were doing – but for very different reasons. Crying the death of a president was an era of despair. To applaud the remarkable technological and scientific achievements of our country has brought a summer of national pride.
The assassination of Kennedy tore the soul of our country and destroyed the hopes of many people to have a better future. Six years later, however, realizing Kennedy's promise he had made before his death, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and restored a sense of accomplishment and solidarity to a country still struggling with war. impossible to win.
In the current political climate that divides, these feelings of pride and accomplishment are untraceable. This feeling of loss is accentuated during the visit of the exhibition, Moon of destination, currently on display at Sen. John Heinz's history center in Pittsburgh.
To commemorate the next 50th anniversary of the mission, the Heinz History Center partnered with the Smithsonian to host Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 mission.
The current display of the journey tells the story of the birth and the history of the space program, tells the story of many thousands of people who worked there, showcases more than 100 artifacts and lets you listen to some of the conversations between Apollo 11 crew members in orbit and on the moon.
The highlight of the exhibition, however, is to see the command module Columbia, the only part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft to put men on the moon and, after eight days of revolutionary travel, brings them safely back to Earth.
The Apollo spacecraft consisted of three parts: the control module, Columbia, accommodation of the crew and supplies; the lunar module, Eagle, named after our national emblem; and the service module responsible for all the propulsion.
How far have we come since the speech of President Kennedy, delivered on May 25, 1961, before the Congress! At that time, the United States had been shaken by Russia's first winning place in the race for space. On April 12, 1961, they launched Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. A month later, on May 5, the United States kicked out Alan Shepherd, a Mercury Navy test pilot. The race was launched.
Three weeks later, Kennedy challenged the country to place a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the decade. More than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians and 20,000 companies came together to meet this challenge.
Pittsburgh companies such as Alcoa, Westinghouse, Rockwell, Allegheny Ludlum, American Bridge (a division of US Steel), Cyclops and PPG played a leading role.
Elaine Arrington, originally from Pittsburgh and based near Dayton's Wright Patterson Air Force base, was among the best and brightest minds. Arrington was the first African-American woman to graduate from Pitt's engineering degree. The milestone story of a colleague, Katharine Johnson, was featured in the film Hidden figures.
The Apollo program, whose goal was to test the orbiter and lander in Earth orbit and lunar, and then land on the moon, was the third in the space program. Mercury, the first step, was to determine if a person could operate in Earth orbit and come back alive. The goal of the second stage, Gemini, was to perfect appointments and docking, to test the ability to walk in space and survive until two weeks into orbit .
Its climax, July 16, 1969 at 9:32, was the launch of Apollo 11, the fifth of the program, from the Kennedy Space Center with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins aboard the satellite. The landing on the moon took place four days later, on July 20th. Mission Commander Armstrong and the Lunar Module pilot Aldrin were the only two to climb the moon, spending more than 21 hours on the surface. The Collins pilot control module piloted the mother ship into lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned.
The exhibition reminds us of a time in this country where we worked to achieve a common goal and where our commonalities far exceeded our differences. It was certainly not a perfect time, but laying the flag on the surface of the moon on a hot summer day in July 1969 evoked an extraordinary sense of patriotism, which has not been experienced since.
The exhibition will run until February 18, 2019. The opening hours of the museum, located at 1212 Smallman Street (in the Pittsburgh Strip District) are from 10 am to 5 pm. Daily. Regular admission is $ 18. Seniors pay $ 15.
The exhibition, in partnership with the Smithsonian, presents part of the spectacular new gallery that will open in Washington in 2021.
Copyright 2018 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
Posted by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our print edition and sign up for our free daily titles.
Source link
