Man on Moon

Who was the second person to walk on the Moon? I suspect the majority of you are now wracking your brains to find the answer, but don’t bother, because in all due respect you won’t find it. No one ever remembers the second man, because life is about ‘coming first and winning the race’. So who was the first person to walk on the moon? Now hopefully the majority of you remember a certain American astronaut Neil Armstrong, but I am sure that only a minority will know that on this day in 1969- Neil Armstrong printed his firstfootsteps on the moon, as well as in the pages of history.

Approximately 250,000 miles away from the comforts of Planet Earth, Armstrong utters the words of history to a billion people listening at home: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. These billion people were probably thinking at that moment: ‘Who is this guy and what is he doing sending us messages from Planet Cheese? Furthermore, he plants his foot on the cheesy surface, and makes history in that one step. So where did it all start?

Interestingly, Armstrong served in the Korean War and on finishing college; he joined the institute that would later become known as the famous NASA. He partook in many missions such as Gemini, Apollo 7, Apollo 11 and many others. His infatuation with space began at the realistic age of 16, and he even earned his student pilot’s license at this age. After gaining experience at NASA, he was launched into mission like a rocket. Since placing his foot on the moon, Armstrong was decorated by seventeen countries.

Armstrong became the star kid of NASA, and a worldwide name which to this date has not been forgotten.

PS from Mr Coy: The second person to walk on the moon was Buzz Aldrin, but perhaps the man who really deserves Nonsuch HP's respect is Michael Collins, who flew all the way to the moon in Apollo 11 but stayed in the command module, never going down to the surface.           

Challenger

Today is the 25th anniversary of the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle. All 7 members of its crew were killed and the disaster was a major setback for the USA's space programme. The disaster was particularly memorable as millions of people around the world watched it happen live on television. This was partly because one of the astronauts was a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who had been selected and trained to inspire students to take an interest in NASA's work. Many schools took an interest in the launch, which was beamed live to many classrooms. Nonsuch HP remembers very clearly watching the footage on Newsround the next day. This BBC article examines how Americans reacted to the tragedy.











President Obama's recent reference to a "Sputnik Moment" in his State of the Union address shows America's continuing fascination with space exploration. It will be interesting to see if competition from China (who last month, just as America's Secretary of Defence was visiting, unveiled their latest "stealth" jet fighter) will encourage a new "space race" to develop.

PS: You can read more about Sputnik (and hear it!) here and here on Nasa's history pages.