Based on the novel, Rocket Boys,By Homer Hickam

1865-1926

• French Author, Jules Verne, published From the Earth to the Moon

• This book inspired the idea of rocketry

1932

• Germans were most successful in their rocketry achievements

• Wernher von Braun was a key leader in this area

• Von Braun was working on a series of more powerful rockets than the V-2 to fire at the United States

End of WWII

• Von Braun surrendered to American forces

• He later wanted to help the US build a rocket-based space program

1945

• Although the Soviet Union had been allies during WWII, the US and the USSR (Soviet Union) became deadly enemies

• They kept the atomic bomb a secret from the USSR

What the US did not Know…

• The USSR had their own atomic bomb!

• 1933 Sergei Korolev launched a rocket that reached over 1,300

• He designed the world’s first satellite, known as Sputnik I

Mid 1950s

• The US and the USSR developed ballistic missiles that could carry atomic bombs

• This meant that the nuclear warheads could be launched from planes or submarines

• If one superpower used their weapons, then the other could retaliate, threatening the entire world with destruction

October 4, 1957

• The Soviet government announced that it had launched the world’s first satellite, named Sputnik I

October 1, 1958

• NASA was formed as a reaction to

Sputnik I and the space race

• This helped relieve the military of keeping up with the space race to the moon and made space a national priority

April 9, 1959

• The Mercury program was developed through NASA to put the first man on the moon

April 12, 1961

• The Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit

• He became the first human to go into outer space

• This humiliated the US

May 25, 1961

• President Kennedy set a goal...

The US Challenge Continues

“The Eagle has landed”July 20, 1969

First Man on the Moon?