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The Sixties: Space

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

The Space Program

If any thing illustrates the dynamic change of the Sixties, it is the Space Program. Within the span of a human's lifetime, the unbelievable happened. On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers first flew an airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC. On an October day in 1957, the Soviet Union sent a satellite named Sputnik into space. And a Space Race began. A race between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union (Russia) to see which of the two great powers would dominate space for military and civilian purposes. Sixty-five years after Kitty Hawk, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, walked on the moon, and science fiction became a science fact.

Movie: A Trip to the Moon

Screenshot from Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902)

Screenshot from the film: Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon)  (1902)
Produced & directed by Georges Méliès
Based on the Jules Verne novel, From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
Film in Public Domain

Space Events

Space Pioneers

Why Canaveral

Why was Cape Canaveral chosen as the launchpad for the Space Program?

  • Sparsely populated so that any engineering disaster would not harm civilians.
  • Easily accessible to the mainland.
  • Any mishaps would crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
  • On the East Coast which would allow to launch with the Earth's rotation.
  • Close to the Equator which would would offer the "easiest way of reaching orbit."
  • Fewer bad weather delays.

Source: American Moonshot: John F. Kenney and the Great Space Race by D. Brinkley pp. 145 - 146.

Mercury Program

The Mercury Program (1958 - 1963)

Photograph: The Mercury 7 Astronauts

The Mercury 7 Official Group Portrait

On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its first astronaut class, the Mercury 7. Front row, left to right: Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.
Source: NASA.

Apollo Program

Apollo Program (1967 - 1972)

Photograph: Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin's footprint on the moon.

Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin photographed this iconic photo, a view of his footprint in the lunar soil, as part of an experiment to study the nature of lunar dust and the effects of pressure on the surface during the historic first manned moon landing in July 1969.(Image: © NASA)​

Apollo Astronauts (1967-1972)

Source: National Air and Space Museum.

Cosmonauts of the Soviet Union (Russia)

Apollo 11 Moon Walk

Photograph: Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working on the moon.

Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working at an equipment storage area on the lunar module. This is one of the few photos that show Armstrong during the moonwalk. Credits: NASA.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle module in the Sea of Tranquility at 4:18 EDT on July 20, 1969. After two and a half hours explring the moon, they rejoined Michael Collins in Apollo 11 for the return trip to Earth. --NASA.

Women of Space

Technology gained from the Space Program

The Space Program either created many new products or modernized older products to make them safer, more effective or more convenient, and in some cases, all three. Some of these products are:

  • adjustable smoke detector
  • artificial limbs
  • athletic shoes
  • nutritional-enriched baby food
  • bar code scanning
  • camera phones
  • CAT scans
  • computer mouse
  • digital displays
  • dust busters
  • ear thermometers
  • fog-free goggles
  • foil blankets
  • freeze dried food
  • gps (global positioning system)
  • home insolation
  • land mine removal
  • LEDs
  • light weight thermal fabrics
  • memory foam mattresses
  • metal alloys like nitinol
  • miniaturized television cameras
  • portable computer
  • protective clothing
  • radiation blockers for sunglasses
  • scratch resistant lenses
  • space pumps to control diabetes
  • sports helmets and shin guards lined with shock absorbing foam.
  • water purification systems
  • wireless headsets

Sources: jpl.nasa.gov and Space Exploration by Stott & Gorton (pp. 56 - 57)

Additional References

  • Brinkley, D. (2019). American moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the great Space Race. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins.
  • Burrows, W. E. (1999). This new ocean: A history of the first space age. New York: Random House International.
  • Sparrow, G. (2019). SPACEFLIGHT: The complete story from sputnik to shuttle and beyond. London: DK Publishing.
  • Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America, 1954-1974. Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
  • Stott, C., & Gorton, S. (2005). Space exploration. London: DK Pub.