Apollo

Spaceflight, flying people beyond the earth's atmosphere, has been the subject of science-fiction movies, magazines and novels. It was first given scientific study in the early 20th century in Russia, Germany, and the United States. Rockets were the only practical means of generating the enormous power required to enable a spacecraft to escape the earth's gravitational pull, so most early research and testing were focused on them. They first became effective as the V2 missile in Germany as a means of delivering explosives from mobile platforms to cities in the UK, France, Holland and Belgium in 1944 and 1945 during World War II. Using German V2 engineers and scientists from this war, Russia and the United States advanced rocketry as a means of obtaining missile and outer space superiority during the Cold War. Scientists and engineers had always been interested in using rockets to propel humans into space and safely back again, but these objectives were secondary to military objects until Russian and American political detente allowed more peaceful pursuits. Advances in rockets and spacecraft continued and culminated in the first American moon landing July 20, 1969. This is the story of how this amazing feat occurred.