The first moon landing was loosely scheduled in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. [1] The realization of this challenge was the final installment in the Space Race with the USSR, a challenge between the two countries born of the Cold War era. Kennedy hoped to make it to the moon before the Soviet Union to demonstrate the strength of the United States to the Communist threat of the east. When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, approximately 600 million people were transfixed by the event on television and radio. Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” line became instantly famous, and the Apollo 11 mission soon found itself well represented in popular culture.[2]

The first moon landing was the pinnacle of excitement in the United States’ space explorations. The New York Times front page from July 21 was completely taken up by headlines about the first men on the moon and photographs from Outer Space. Sadly, while the excitement about the mission was enormous, subsequent moon landings failed to capture the country’s imagination and attention in the same way.[3]

[1] nasa.gov

[2] history.nasa.gov

[3] history.nasa.gov