In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States of America was engaged in the so-called "cold war", a geopolitical rivalry against the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the latter launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This surprising success sparked fears and imaginations around the world. It not only served to demonstrate that the Soviet Union possessed the ability to strike with nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, but also to challenge US expectations of military, economic and technological superiority. President Dwight D. Eisenhower reacted to this news by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and giving impetus to the start of the Mercury Program, which aimed to get a man into geocentric orbit. However, on April 12, 1961, the Americans were again anticipated when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and the first to orbit the Earth. Almost a month later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, completing a 15-minute suborbital flight. After being recovered in the Atlantic Ocean, he received a congratulatory call from President Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy cared about what citizens of other nations thought of the United States and believed that it was in the national interest not only to be superior to others, but that it was as important to be as powerful as to appear as such. It was therefore considered intolerable that the Soviet Union was more advanced in space exploration and that it was determined to beat the United States in a challenge that maximized its chances of victory.
Since the Soviet Union could boast the carriers with the highest payload capacity, the United States was presented with a challenge that went beyond the capacity in producing ballistic systems of the existing generation to match the Soviets, but which had to present a milestone more spectacular, even if not justified by strictly military reasons. After consulting with his experts and his consultants, Kennedy chose such a project.
Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft consisted of three parts: a Command Module (CM) which housed the three astronauts and is the only part that returned to Earth, a Service Module (SM), which provided the propulsion command module, energy electricity, oxygen and water, and a Lunar Module (LM). The spacecraft entered lunar orbit after about three days of travel and, once reached, astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin moved to the lunar module Eagle with which they descended into the Sea of Tranquility. After setting foot on the moon and making history's first lunar walk, the astronauts used Eagle's ascent stage to leave the surface and rejoin Collins on the command module. They then released Eagle before carrying out the maneuvers that would take them out of the lunar orbit towards a trajectory towards the Earth where they landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space.
The first lunar walk was broadcast live on television for a worldwide audience. On setting his first foot on the surface of the Moon, Armstrong commented on the event as "one small step for [one] man, one great leap for mankind". Apollo 11 concluded the space race undertaken by the United States and the Soviet Union in the broader scenario of the Cold War, realizing the national goal that the President of the United States John F. Kennedy had defined on May 25, 1961 in a speech before the United States Congress: "before this decade is over, to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth".
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