The Importance of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing - Research Paper Example

? The Importance of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing and How it Affected America's Relationship with Russia The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing is often characterized as one of the most important achievements of US in the context of scientific research. In fact, the particular mission has been related to the significant enhancement of the power of US as a global competitor in the Aerospace industry. Moreover, it seems that the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing has highly affected America’s Relationship with Russia. The above view is reflected in the continuous increase of competitiveness between the two countries, since the completion of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. The effects of the above mission on America’s relationship with Russia are reviewed in this paper; the explanation of the value of the specific mission for USA and for the global community has been considered as necessary in order to understand the differentiation of the relationship between USA and Russia under the influence of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. The paper aims to prove that the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing has been a unique event, highly affecting the relationship between USA and Russia which are considered as major competitors in the Aerospace industry. The Apollo missions are considered as the most important projects in the American Aerospace industry. Of particular importance is the first of these missions, the Apollo 11 Lunar landing that tool place in the 20th of July 1969. During that day ’Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the two members of the crew, had the chance to walk for about half of a mile on foot’.1 It was the first time in human history that such trip has been achieved. Normally, the above achievement should have caused the interest of scientists and the public worldwide. Still, the value of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing has been doubted.2 One of the key reasons has been the project’s cost. It should be noted that in the initial period of the Apollo missions, during which the Apollo 11 Lunar landing took place, NASA had to spend about ‘four percent of the federal budget’,3 an amount that it is considered as too high, taking into consideration the rest of the needs of the state. Of course, the above fact has not eliminated the importance of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing; still, due to its cost the mission did not have the support expected, if considering its value for science, not just for USA but for the international community. The importance of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing can be understood if referring to the mission’s various aspects. The Apollo 11 mission has been a project in which critical programs of Aerospace have been tested. Reference can be made, for example, to ‘the Centaur Program, a program instrumental in the success of the above mission’.4 In ‘the 40th anniversary of Apollo mission’, engineers working in NASA’s projects had the chance to highlight the value of the Centaur program, which was developed during the Apollo 11 mission.5 During the above anniversary, the value of the Apollo 11 for the improvement of the technology involved in the Aerospace industry was highlighted; reference has been made, for example, to the robotic technology6 but also to the Space Shuttle engine,7 which had a critical role in the success of the Apollo 11 mission. Moreover, by completing the Apollo 11 mission successfully, USA could set more targets in regards to the Aerospace industry. The exploration of other planets and the development of other projects related to the space have been made feasible in the context of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing. This fact is reflected in the following event: in the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing, the US president, George Bush announced the intention of the US Government to support the expansion of projects related to the Aerospace industry.8 The expansion would include a series of initiatives, such as ‘a mission to Mars and a permanent return to the Moon’.9 The above announcements were made in order to enhance the popularity of NASA’s projects. Indeed, in the period between the Apollo 11 Lunar landing and the mission’s 20th anniversary the development of space-related projects had been quite slow, being characterized by ‘fear for risk-taking and bureaucracy’.10 The success of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing was not managed appropriately in the years that followed, at least up to 1989. Thus, the delays noted in the development of the US Aerospace industry were not related to the Apollo 11 mission but rather to the high bureaucracy. Also, the uniqueness of the Apollo 11 mission should be taken into consideration. The staff involved in the above mission could not have experience in managing such projects; thus, their ability to support the expansion of the project was limited.11 This led to the decrease of these missions’ supporters, both in within the government and in the scientific community.12 The development of the US Aerospace industry in the years that followed, as highlighted in the article of Odom, presented above, proves that the problems in managing the success of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing have been appropriately resolved. Apart from the effects of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing on the technology used in the Aerospace industry, of particular importance are the social effects of the above mission. Indeed, the Apollo 11 Lunar landing has highly influenced America’s relationship with the other countries worldwide, particularly Russia. Russia has been the major competitor of USA in regard to the exploration of space. The successful completion of the Apollo 11 mission verified the superiority of US towards Russia in the specific field. The views of ‘Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev’13 as reflected in an article published in American Scientific in 2009 revealed the extreme competition between US and Russia in regard to Aerospace projects. According to Khrushchev, the success of the Apollo 11 mission was not given a high publicity in Russia, because of the following fact: in media across USA the landing in the moon was described as ‘the first American in the moon’,14 a fact that discouraged media in Russia to focus on this event. In addition, in the above article, reference is made to the achievement of Russia in developing ‘the first artificial Satellite, Sputnik 1, and in sending the first man into orbit’.15 These two achievements, as developed during the governance of Russia by Nikita Khrushchev, had established a superiority of Russia in the Space Race.16 The success of Apollo 11 mission, as the response of US towards the above achievements of Russia, had offered to US an important advantage: US had managed to send first a man to the moon, an achievement that was considered as significantly more important, compared to the previous achievements of Russia in regard to the space exploration.17 Another aspect of the Apollo 11 mission has been the following one: the above mission caused turbulences in the efforts made by Americans and Russian scientists in developing a common framework of space exploration.18 According to ‘Roald Z. Sagdeev, the former head of the Russian Space Research Institute’,19 since the Cold War Russia and USA had started to cooperate for establishing a successful framework in regard to the exploration of space. The Apollo 11 Lunar landing, as also a series of other events, had led to the worsening of the relationship between US and Russia in regard to space-related projects.20 In fact, it took up to 1980s in order for the cooperation between Russia and US in regard to space-related projects to be improved.21 According to issues discussed above, the Apollo 11 Lunar landing has highly benefited the Aerospace industry, not only in the context of US but also globally. Moreover, it has been made clear that the importance of the Apollo 11 mission has different aspects: the Apollo 11 mission has been used for testing advanced technology in regard to the Aerospace industry. The above mission has been also used for securing the superiority of US in the particular field, especially as of the country’s major competitor, Russia. Finally, the Apollo 11 mission has been used for justifying similar projects, i.e. for supporting the further expansion of the research developed by US in regard to the Aerospace industry. Bibliography Das, Saswato. “The Moon Landing through Soviet Eyes: A Q&A with Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev.” Scientific American, July 16, 2009. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=apollo-moon-khrushchev (accessed September 8, 2012). Hogan, Thor. “Lessons Learned from the Space Exploration Initiative.” NASA History Division 24, 4(2007): 1-34. http://history.nasa.gov/nltr24-4.pdf (accessed September 8, 2012) NASA History Division, “Apollo 40th Anniversary Events.” NASA History Division 26, 3(2009): 1-27. http://history.nasa.gov/nltr26-3.pdf (accessed September 8, 2012) Odom, Jane, Fries, Colin, Gage, April and Leilani Marshall. “Society of American Archivists Convenes in San Francisco.” NASA History Division 25, 4 (2008): 1-29. http://history.nasa.gov/nltr25-4.pdf (accessed September 8, 2012) Sagdeev, Roald. “United States-Soviet Space Cooperation during the Cold War.” NASA 50th Magazine, May 28, 2008. http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/coldWarCoOp.html (accessed September 8, 2012). Read More