Educator’s Guide Grades 6-12 INTRODUCTION EXHIBIT GUIDE In 1969, Americans landed two men on the Moon on the Apollo 11 mission. Development of space programs in the United States and the Soviet Union This epic achievement was the result of decades of scientific advancement began at the end of World War II, when each began building programs from and hundreds of thousands of individuals’ efforts. It was also the culmination the remains of the German V-2 program. Both countries scrambled to secure of more than twenty years of Cold War hostilities between America and military and technological advantage over the other, fueling a Cold War the Soviet Union and a beacon of hope during a contentious decade in between the two nations. The Space Race began in earnest with the launch American history. of the Soviet’s Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, in 1957. The lessons learned from the early space program and the conflicts, at THE BEEP HEARD ROUND THE WORLD home and abroad, led to cooperation both on and off Earth. International Amid national shock and fear over the Soviet satellite, the United States partnerships in space grew from the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, an American- rushed to catch up. America launched their own artificial Earth satellite, Russian collaboration, to the International Space Station, a group effort from Explorer-I, January 31, 1958. Both countries applied their best minds and 15 countries that includes astronauts and experiments from many more. resources to developing the technology necessary to send humans to space, with the ultimate goal of landing humans on the Moon. Now America is on the cusp of another epic journey, this time to Moon and beyond to Mars. The Artemis program will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 and will build on that achievement to allow humans to explore further in space than ever before. The American space program today stands on the shoulders of all those who worked to make those first footprints on the Moon. This is a 1:1 model of Sputnik. Its beep could Diameter 22.8 inches be heard by tuning into the right radio wave Antenna length 9.5 feet frequency as it passed overhead in orbit. Weight 184 pounds 2 3 THE POINT OF CONTENTION A STRENGTHENED RESOLVE In October 1962, military tensions escalated between the Soviet Union and In 1962, President Kennedy told the country that America would land the United States. In response to American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy humans on the Moon by the end of the decade. His assassination in 1963 and Turkey capable of reaching the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union installed spurred the nation on to fulfill his legacy. nuclear missiles in Cuba capable of reaching the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis, a 13-day confrontation over the placement of these weapons, was the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war. This nose cone is an unused flight-like Length/Height 95.5 inches test article of a U.S. Jupiter Missile. Width 65 inches Weight 900 pounds Materials Ceramic ablative coating and stainless steel These letters of achievement, grief, and hope between Wernher von Braun and Jacqueline Kennedy were exchanged only three months after President Kennedy’s assassination. 4 5 TRANSCRIPTS Mrs. John F. Kennedy February 11, 1964 Wernher von Braun Dear Dr von Braun February 1, 1964 I do thank you for your letter - about the Saturn – and about my husband. Mrs. John F. Kennedy What a wonderful world it was for a few years – with men like you to help Washington, D.C. realize his dreams for this country – And you with a President who admired and understood you - so that together you changed the way the world Dear Mrs. Kennedy: looked at America – and made us proud again- In our elation over the successful launch of the SA-5 last Wednesday—the Please do me one favor – sometimes when you are making an fifth in a successful string of launchings of the Saturn I rockets, but the first announcement about some spectacular new success – say something about capable of going into orbit—I must tell you how happy and grateful we are President Kennedy and how helped to turn the tide – so people won’t that this test came off so well. All of us connected with this undertaking forget. know only too well how eagerly the late President had been looking forward to this launching, which would at last establish the log awaited American I hope Iam not the only one to feel this way – It is my only consolation - that lead in the capability of orbiting heavy payloads. at least he was given time to do some great work on this earth, which now seems such a miserable and lonely place without him. The trust he had placed in us, and his confidence that we could succeed, How much more he could have done – but I must not think about that. offered great encouragement but placed on us an even greater sense of I do thank you for your letter obligation. I am enclosing a picture taken in front of the towering SA-5 rocket at Cape Kennedy on November 16th. The model at the left depicts Sincerely, the upper part of the rocket which is now orbiting the earth once every 94 minutes. The unit in orbit has a length of 83 feet and a weight of 37,800 lbs. Jacqueline Kennedy You have been overwhelmed with condolences from all over the world at After successfully launching satellites, both space programs began working the tragic death of your beloved husband. Like for so many, the sad news in earnest to send humans to explore the new frontier of space. The Soviet from Dallas was a personal blow to me. We do not know a better way of Union and the United States developed programs to put small single-person mourning the late President than to do our very best to make his dream and spacecraft into orbit around the Earth. Again, the rockets for the job were determination come true that “America must learn to sail on this new ocean evolved versions of military weapons. The next phase of the Space Race of space and be in a position second to none.” was to leap the technical hurdles required to take humans to the Moon. The United States and the Soviet Union had similar agendas: multi-person With deepest sympathy—Wernher von Braun flights with spacewalks, long duration flights, and spacecraft tests. The Soviet space program beat Americans to major milestones including the first person in space, the first spacewalk, and the first two- and three-person crewed space flights. 6 7 THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS While NASA worked to pull ahead in the Space Race, the United States struggled with political and social turmoil. The Civil Rights movement, begun in the 1940s, was at its peak through the 1960s. People seeking equality under the law and equality in society conducted sit-ins, marches, boycotts, and other means of protesting discrimination, spurring political reform. US involvement in the Vietnam War escalated through the 1960s. Kennedy/King Many joined the war effort to support the spread of American democratic values to a country at risk of falling to communism. Some men were forced This pin-back button is in response to the assassinations of Robert F. to join the war through conscription into the army. Anti-war sentiment Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. and protests against American involvement in Vietnam gained momentum through the late 1960s. In 1973, the United States withdrew from Vietnam. Freedom Now CORE Stop Lynching, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded in 1942 by a group of 50 Founded February 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement activists, one third were black while the rest were white, to protest racial of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s foremost, largest, and most segregation in the United States. Their primary tactics were to employ widely recognized civil rights organization. non-violent civil disobedience as a means of protesting segregation. CORE was instrumental in organizing the freedom rides in the American NAACP works to secure the political, educational, social, and economic South to protest segregated public transportation and assisted in many equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure demonstrations throughout the 1960s. the health and well-being of all persons. Among the Association’s top priorities was eradicating lynching of African- Americans. 8 9 The Apollo program began in 1961. A cabin fire during a prelaunch test A MONUMENTAL TEAM that killed the 3-person Apollo 1 crew brought home the dangers of space Over 400,000 individuals contributed to the success of the American exploration to the American public. A renewed focus on the importance space program. The best and brightest scientists, mathematicians, artists, of safety and precision in the American space program contrasted with the custodians, engineers, writers, coders, doctors, and hundreds of other jobs headlong rush to victory of the Soviets. Despite that, the Apollo program worked for over a decade to send humans to the Moon and bring them quickly outstripped the Soviet program. safely home again. STEADY AND READY TO GO The badges and hard hat belonged to employees of the Space Division of North American Rockwell Corporation and represent the thousands who worked behind the scenes on the Apollo team. North American Rockwell was primarily involved with the Apollo Command Module (capsule) and Service Module.