Over the next few years, the Apollo missions would continue. Apollo 12 sends the second manned mission to the Moon on November 14, 1969, during which time astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad perform two moonwalks (on our natural satellite, not the dancefloor). 

Then, on April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 mission takes off. This mission ends in disaster after 2 days in space when a liquid oxygen tank in the service module explodes, crippling the spacecraft. Luckily, the crew manages to abort the mission and splash down on Earth safely. 

Finally, Apollo 17 takes off in 1972, marking the last time human beings have set foot on the Moon. The Soviets, for their part, never will put a cosmonaut on the Moon.

Interpretations of the Space Race vary. With the Lunar landing, it’s easy to stake the claim that the USA won the Space Race. The landing of two humans on the Moon was an extremely complex and risky technological endeavour, requiring an unprecedented amount of expertise, meticulous planning and technological prowess. There is no more iconic image in the Space Race than that of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, and with it, the Americans scored a huge propaganda victory over the Soviets. This has persisted even today; most people tend to interpret the American landing on the Moon as marking their victory in the Space Race.

But more subtle interpretations are also fun to entertain. The anthropologist David Graeber has provocatively described the Moon landings as the ‘Soviet Union’s Greatest Achievement”, arguing that without the external pressure of a rival superpower with an ambitious space exploration project, the USA would never have been spurred on to explore space. The two superpowers worked in tandem in a way, the success of one side encouraging the other to pursue even loftier goals. Graeber’s interpretation is strengthened by the fact that, after the USA emerged from the Cold War as the only global superpower, it has never attempted as ambitious a goal as space travel.

Both Walter A. McDougall, in his famous political history of the Space Age, and Graeber take the argument further. They point out that, to marshal the huge resources, manpower and expertise needed to reach the Moon, the capitalist USA, which on paper claimed that the free market and private enterprise were the best ways to create human flourishing, was forced to adopt the principles of Soviet communism. Instead of a privatised company carrying out the Lunar landings, the USA harnessed the power of the state. When the US government wanted to do something as costly, long-term and ambitious as space travel, big government was needed – top-down, publicly funded (or socialised), operated not within the profit motive that capitalism champions, but for a loftier aim. McDougall called the political apparatus behind the Moon landings a ‘technocracy’, a state-directed vision of scientific progress led by public money and civilian participation rather than the private sector and market forces.

This interpretation asks us to consider the fact that, whilst the USA may have claimed victory in the Space Race, it was forced to adopt some of the techniques and structures of Soviet communism and central planning to get there. If the Space Race is seen as a competition between the ideologies of communism and capitalism to see which belief system could best marshal its nation’s resources and the talent of its citizens, who the winner was is much less clear. 

So far, we have seen the stakes of the Space Race become less militarised, and the competitions more good-natured. We have seen the paranoid and volatile post-war arms race evolve into a contest based increasingly on the principles of discovery and technological innovation, with even the occasional friendly gesture between the two powers (i.e Armstrong’s plaque, or Krushchev’s gift to Kennedy). Now, as our story moves into its final chapter, these positive aspects of the Race will deepen, and the two superpowers begin to compete and collaborate on a series of missions intended to establish a semi-permanent human presence in space. 

Då var vi äntligen framme och har satt fötterna på månen!

Gabriel gick i mål strax före mig.

På måndag 22 september påbörjar vi den sista utmaningen i The Conqueror Events Challenge: ”Space Race – Space Stations”.

Jag tror att vi skall sätta en sluttid på max 3-veckor på den, så att det blir lite mer utmaning.

Då var det dags för nästa vykortet i ordningen, för vägen mot månen.

Between 500 and 650 million people tune in to watch the rocket launch. Travelling in a graceful S-shaped trajectory, it flies through space for 2 hours and 44 minutes, orbiting the Earth once, before it reaches translunar orbit. Then, the command module (named Columbia) and the Lunar module (called ‘Eagle’) separate from the rest of the craft, ready for the landing.

For three days, the three astronauts travel towards the Moon. Finally, on July 19th, the rocket’s engines fire to slow the craft down as it nears Lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin ease themselves into Eagle, as Collins remains behind on Columbia. The module separates and slowly begins its descent to the landing spot near the Sea of Tranquillity.

“The Eagle has landed”

This transmission greets the NASA command centre back on Earth and the 650 million people who are watching with bated breath. As Eagle touches down on the Moon’s surface, two men prepare to make history. 

The hatch is opened, and Neil Armstrong makes his one small step. Armstrong deploys a TV camera, and then four bootprints mark the soft, untouched Lunar surface. Then follows a telephone call between the two astronauts and Richard Nixon. 

Armstrong and Aldrin begin their tasks on the Moon. A metal medallion is placed on the surface, commemorating the three astronauts who lost their lives in the Apollo 1 mission, as well as the two cosmonauts who lost their lives during space exploration, and a one-and-a-half-inch silicon disk containing goodwill messages from 71 countries. The astronauts collect Moon rocks to distribute to the other nations of the world, plant the American flag on the Moon’s surface, conduct a series of scientific experiments, and leave a plaque engraved with the words “We came in peace for all mankind”. After 21 hours on the Moon (including a 7-hour sleep), they return to Columbia and begin their journey home. On July 24, Apollo 11 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, returning the astronauts to Earth. 

Samtidigt kom bevis på att vi passerat 80% av den totala sträckan och att ännu ett träd blivit planterat.

Efter uppdatering av gårdagens steg, fick vi ännu ett vykort från vägen mot månen.

Two more missions fly before Apollo 11 makes its historic journey. On 3 March 1969, Apollo 9 takes James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell ”Rusty” Schweickart up on the Saturn V rocket on a mission to test the Lunar module, the lander that will take the astronauts to the Moon and return them safely to the spacecraft in Lunar orbit. This is the first manned flight of the entire Apollo system, and its success brings NASA one step closer to their moonshot. 

With the success of Apollo 9, Apollo 10 is launched just over three months later, on the 18th May. This was the dress rehearsal for the Moon landing, with every step of the mission being recreated except that the Lunar module would not land on the Moon’s surface. The mission goes off without any serious difficulty and makes 10 broadcasts for the people at home. As the craft nears the Moon’s orbit, the Lunar Module is launched above the planned landing site , on Moon’s Sea of Tranquillity (which you can see with your naked eye as one of the large dark spots on the Moon’s surface). Before the launch of the module, NASA disables the fuel in the module, preventing an actual landing on the Moon, which is said to have been done just in case the astronauts are tempted to attempt to make an unauthorised landing.

This is it, the Moon is now within reach. Less than 50 years previously, the idea of a human in flight was relegated to the fantasies of mythology and speculative fiction, now a Moon landing is just a few training sessions away. The equipment is checked and re-checked, three astronauts rehearse for their mission, and the American president, Republican Richard Nixon, prepares two speeches – one celebrating the mission’s success, the other, “In Event of a Moon Disaster”, in case of failure.

Här går det undan! Precis passerat 60% av den totala sträckan upp mot månen och Gabriel ligger strax före med någon kilometer.

Ännu ett träd planterat!

The launch goes, in the words of Commander Wally Schirra, “like a dream”. There are few serious problems, except that the crew develops a cold, which is a far more uncomfortable condition in low gravity than it is back home (I’ll spare you the details).

The Apollo 7 mission proves that the Command and Service Module (CSM) is capable of functioning in Earth orbit. The next job is to get a rocket into the vicinity of our natural satellite. The astronauts crewing Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. and William Anders, launch from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 21, 1968. These three men become the first humans to ever leave Earth’s orbit, and then, the first to orbit the Moon. As they pass around it, out of communication range with NASA, they become the first to see, with their own eyes, the far side of our satellite. From Lunar orbit, William Anders takes the famous Earthrise photograph, which shows our tiny blue planet wreathed with clouds, peeking out of the vast inky void.  

From day 4 of the mission, the astronauts make a series of 7 films that will become the second live television broadcasts from a space mission, following a short transmission from Apollo 7. The American people enjoy the thrilling experience of seeing their astronauts complete their daring missions. On Christmas Eve, two days before the mission’s end, millions tune in to hear a reading from Genesis from the astronauts in space. Here, NASA begins a tradition that will culminate in the great worldwide TV spectacle of the Moon landings, and orchestrates a huge propaganda coup, showing the world that the USA has finally taken the lead in the Space Race.

Det femte i ordningen av vykorten från The Conqueror Events utmaningen ”Space Race – To the Moon”, kom när gårdagens steg hade registrerats.

Gabriel ligger fortfarande ca: 10% före mig och jag har kommit till 48%.

Three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, prepare for a pre-flight test on January 27th, 1967. A fire starts, probably from an electrical fault, and sweeps through the module – unfortunately, all three men are killed. NASA reels in shock from this disaster, and the American space programme takes a great hit to its confidence; the mission intended to test the hardware being used to reach the Moon was unable even to make it off the ground, and the accident has cost the lives of three young men. What makes it worse is that the Apollo crew had previously expressed grave doubts about the safety of the aircraft, especially concerning the amount of flammable material in the cockpit (especially dangerous as the high oxygen concentration in a space capsule makes it highly combustible), loose wiring hanging from the cabin ceiling, and the poor escape hatch design, which opened inwards, slowing their evacuation.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in the same year, the story repeats itself with the launch of the Soyuz 1 rocket. This is the first manned spaceflight mission the Soviets have attempted since the death of the visionary head of their spaceflight programme, Sergei Korolev, in 1966. Though the Soyuz completes its mission, as its commander, Vladimir Komarov, prepares to make his re-entry to Earth, the parachute in his capsule fails to deploy, and he crashes to the ground. Later declassified Soviet documents reveal that although over 203 design flaws were reported by Soyuz I engineers, and previous test flights had uncovered serious failures, the Soviet Politburo overruled these concerns, as well as a pleading note from Yuri Gagarin asking them to delay the mission, as they wanted it to fly on Lenin’s birthday.

These twin tragedies seriously rocked the confidence of both NASA and the Soviet Space Programme. They are also a reminder of the human cost of the two nations’ ideological battle. As the Soviet Union tried to maintain its lead in the race against a rapidly advancing USA, and as the Americans desperately tried to catch up with their rivals, serious safety concerns raised by the crews and their technicians were ignored or brushed aside.

The disasters prompt a more serious focus on the safety of their crews on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The failure of the Soyuz I launch meant the Soviet authorities enforced stricter measures to ensure the safety of the Soyuz 2 and 3 crafts, and NASA delayed another manned mission until Apollo 7 in late 1968. With this major setback, the death of Korolev, and the huge advances being made by the Americans, the Soviets begin to rethink their mission. They begin to scale back their moonshot and never publicly acknowledge a desire to send a man to the Moon, instead pivoting towards developing space stations. As the Soviets pull back, the Americans pull forward.

Years later, the names of these astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in the service of space exploration would be commemorated on a plaque placed by Neil Armstrong on the surface of the Moon, which you can see in the image of this postcard.

Idag fick jag så beskedet, att jag passerat 40% av den totala sträckan i ”To the Moon”, och att ännu ett träd har planterats.

NASA begins the programme with two unmanned missions, Gemini I and II. The first tests the spacecraft’s structural integrity, as well as the Titan II launch vehicle, a repurposed ballistic missile adapted to launch the Gemini spacecraft. The second launch is focused on the safety of the crew. Thus, the tests are concerned with the rocket’s capability to resist an atmospheric re-entry as well as the integrity of its hull and life support systems.

The first manned mission of the project is Gemini III. On March 23 1965, Virgil Grisson and John Young orbit the Earth for almost five hours. This allows NASA to test their tracking equipment, as well as evaluate the onboard equipment operated by astronauts and the craft’s controls. NASA will launch nine more manned missions, each one inching them closer to the possibility of a spaceflight to the Moon. Then, as Gemini IV soars through the heavens, Ed White performs the USA’s first spacewalk.

On Gemini VIII, a young astronaut named Neil A. Armstrong, along with David Scott, makes his first spaceflight. This is a long flight of two weeks, aimed at performing the world’s first space docking, essential for the trip to the Moon. Armstrong expertly docks Gemini VIII with its docking target, the Agena, and begins an orbit around the Earth. Just as they pass around our planet, and out of communications range with the Houston Mission Control Centre, they begin to rapidly spin. At first, Armstrong believes that it’s the Agena that is causing the problem, so he shuts down the craft’s control system. The spinning increases, and the astronauts experience near-blackout conditions. In desperation, they detach the Agena, but this only makes the problem worse. 

As it turns out, one of Gemini’s capsule’s thrusters is malfunctioning. The craft is spinning like a top now, making one revolution per second. They must make an emergency landing. Engaging his re-entry system, Armstrong lands his craft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Gemini VIII’s mission is only a partial success, but Armstrong demonstrates his intelligence and acumen, keeping his head and improvising in a state of semi-consciousness and saving himself, his crewmate and the mission.

The final Gemini launch, Gemini XII, carries two important NASA heroes, Buzz Aldrin, who will be the second man on the Moon, and Jim Lovell, who will survive the disastrous Apollo 13 mission. On November 11th, the two astronauts spend almost four days in orbit, conducting spacewalks and other experiments. By the time they touch down on Earth, the bridge between Mercury and Apollo is complete, and the Moon missions can begin.

Gabriel är en bit före mig i denna utmaning, men vi har nu passerat 20% av den totala sträckan, och ännu vars ett träd har planterats!