MOON 20 July 2009 Neil Armstrong the first human on the Moon's surface 40 years ago

On Jul 20 during the Apollo 11 mission of 1969, NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon. The last man on the Moon was Eugene Cernan during the Dec 1972 Apollo 17 mission. It was the final flight in the Apollo program. Twelve US astronauts walked on the Moon during the six successful lunar landing Apollo missions. There is likely to be a 40th anniversary celebration at the White House, with the aging Apollo astronauts at the event lobbying the new president for NASA funding to make sure the United States is not an "also ran" in the race back to the Moon.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, warned recently in an an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph that America must invest now in NASA or surrender leadership of space exploration to Russia and China.

Initially in the race for space dominance, the United States was forced to play catch up after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first unmanned spacecraft in 1957. Then, four years later, the Soviets sent the first man into space. But America also made large strides in space exploration, and blasted ahead in 1969 by putting a man on the moon. Russia has been reviving its space research program, which all but collapsed after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991.

The head of NASA's lunar exploration programme, Dr Michael Griffin, said in July that the United States space agency plans to return people to the lunar surface by 2020 using its new Orion spacecraft, adding it is "certainly" possible that China could reach the Moon before a US mission returned there. Russia announced in May 2008 that it is teaming up to build a spaceship that will fly astronauts to the Moon, with the first test flight in 2015 and first manned flight set for 2018. India and Japan also have sights set on landing their people on the moon. Jul/08

RELATED READING:

Russia, ESA may team up for Moon flights (Reuters 14 May 2008)
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1481372220080514?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=22&sp=true

China "could reach Moon by 2020" (BBC 15 Jul 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7506715.stm

General Aviation Space Group

http://www.gaspacegroup.org/index.htm