July 20th 1969, the World held its collective breath as a 38 year old American, Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Lunar surface with the words “ One giant step for man, one giant leap for Mankind”. Life itself would never again be the same for the 3 Apollo astronauts, nor for mankind itself. From viable German rocketry at the close of WW2 through an Intensifying ‘Cold War’ and The Space Race this talk describes the Russian and American space programmes. The ultimate aim to be the first to truly conquer space and put a man on the Moon. An early lead in the space race put the USSR in a commanding position with Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin’s first orbit of the Earth. The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes snatched and then maintained the lead for the USA. This talk describes the path the USA took to the Moon, the pinnacle of which was the Apollo 11 ‘Moon-Shot’ the rest as they say ,is ‘History’.
Doors open at 1:15pm.