To achieve this end, Congress appropriated the funding for NASA’s Apollo lunar landing program. On May 25, 1961, he stood before a joint session of Congress to deliver a special message on 'urgent national needs.' He asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that 'this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth.' President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation's lagging space efforts. President Kennedy believed the United States needed to restore America's confidence and intended not merely to match the Soviets in space, but surpass them. The United States, it seemed, was still falling behind. Then, in 1961, the nation suffered another shock when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. Project Mercury's goals were to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth, investigate the ability of astronauts to function in space, and recover astronauts and spacecraft safely. Seven men were selected to take part in the program: Scott Carpenter, Leroy Gordon Cooper, John Glenn Jr., Virgil 'Gus' Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., and Donald 'Deke' Slayton. The Soviets' triumph jarred the American people and sparked a vigorous response in the federal government to make sure the United States did not fall behind its Communist rival.Ī new space program, Project Mercury, was initiated two years later, during President Dwight D. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, and the 'Space Race' was on. Achievements in space by either country were seen as signs of technological superiority. But the two superpowers continually antagonized each other through political maneuvering, military coalitions, espionage, propaganda, arms buildups, economic aid, and proxy wars between other nations. Soldiers of the Soviet Union and the United States did not do battle directly during the Cold War. Students should have general background knowledge of Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.Īfter World War II, the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states began a decades-long struggle for supremacy known as the Cold War. explain the Kennedy Administration’s arguments for putting a human on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.analyze the differences in the tone or content of the primary sources.analyze primary sources, considering the purpose of the source, the audience, and the occasion.In this lesson plan, students do a close reading of four primary sources related to the US space program in 1961, analyzing how and why public statements made by the White House regarding space may have differed from private statements made within the Kennedy Administration.Įssential Questions: How was the 'Space Race' connected to the Cold War? How and why might the White House communicate differently in public and in private? How might the Administration garner support for their policy? Objectives Goals/Rationale: The decision by the Kennedy Administration to make a manned lunar landing the major goal of the US space program derived from political as well as scientific motivations. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museumĭownload this lesson plan, including handouts, as a PDF.

Race into space walkthrough