The Space Race

40 Years ago, on 20th July this year, Neil Armstrong first walked on the Moon. This landmark event, a focal point for an estimated 500 million of the world’s television viewers, young and old, caused ripples across the globe and burnt indelible memories, into all those who observed, with justified fascination. Since then, we have become quite blasé about this event; we have realised that we should perhaps be spending more time on our terrestrial needs rather than probing outer space. Moreover, the great predictions for the future of spaceflight, which stemmed from Apollo’s impressive achievement, have not come to pass in the last four decades. Nevertheless, behind the public event and the millions of viewers listening to Armstrong’s famous sound bite, there lies an incredible story of technological and human enterprise and endeavour. In fact, once the surface facts of Apollo’s missions are scraped away, the Moon landings themselves seem even more incredible than at first sight.

Taking into account the fact that there are only 65 and half years separating the Wright Brothers' first successful flight and Armstrong’s descent onto the Moon’s surface, Years 5 and 6 have been investigating the science and technology which was required to take a human being beyond the relative safety of the surface of the Earth. Apart from the obvious milestones in aviation and rocketry we have been exploring Wernher von Braun’s predictions, from the 1950s, courtesy of a Walt Disney documentary. Following on from this, we are comparing his predictions to the reality of events, beginning with the official start of the Space Race, with the successful launch of Sputnik. Finally, as we immerse ourselves in Apollo, we will look closely at the human factor, meeting the astronauts and the key figures in the American and Russian space programmes. Having encountered these pioneers, at the time of their great achievements, we will finish the project by meeting them through recent interviews, looking back at the Moon and explaining what it was really like to ride a rocket into space.