Moon Landing, 1

 
 
 

Vocabulary

leap	giant (2)	project (2)
mile	space (2)	address (3)
lunar	congress	commander
land (2)	mankind	years in the making
joint	artificial	module (2)
commit	propose	launch (2)
goal (2)	range (2)	impressive
decade	existing	accomplish
step (2)	period (3)	man-made
race (2)	believe (2)	atmosphere (2)
trail (2)	object (3)	make/made/made
session	satellite	far behind (2)
achieve	creation	exploration
civilian	based on	aeronautics
achieve	major (2)	fall behind
speech	orbit (2)	send/sent/sent
victory	resources	caught up with
declare	manned	catch/caught/caught
robust	contract	essentially
deliver	supplies	investigation
cargo	force (3)	related (2)
carry	order (3)	branch (2)
deal (2)	astronaut	to and from
put	found (2)	fall/fell/fallen
defense	frontier	mission (2)
pioneer	open up	leadership
	complete	lead/led/led

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Astronaut: “That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.”

After a few days in traveling 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) through space, Commander Neil Armstrong, and lunar module pilot Edwin Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the moon.

And just hours later, Armstrong became the first person to step onto the moon: on July 20th 1969. The historic moment was years in the making.

 

Let’s go back to May 25th, 1961. President John F Kennedy was addressing a special joint session of Congress.

John F Kennedy, President: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult to accomplish.”

The US had been trailing the Soviet Union in the so-called “Space Race”. On October 4th, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik into the atmosphere. It was the first man-made object to be put into space, and the world’s first artificial satellite.

The US wasn’t far behind and launched its own satellite, Explorer 1 on January 31st 1958. Later that year, President Dwight Eisenhower proposed the creation of a civilian National Aeronautics and Space Agency, to be based on the existing National Advisory Committee on aeronautics.

NASA was officially founded on October 1st 1958. The major goal of sending an American into space, called Project Mercury, was achieved in 1961. And now we’re caught up with JFK’s speech.

After that, the US sent an astronaut to orbit the Earth and started its lunar landing program, Project Apollo.

In December 1968, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon, Apollo 8, launched and successfully completed its mission. And with Armstrong and Aldrin’s first steps on the moon, the US essentially declared victory in the Space Race.

So where is the US space program now? It’s not quite as robust as it was fifty years ago. We’ve got astronauts on the International Space Station, which has housed humans continuously since 2000.

NASA has also contracted commercial companies like SpaceX to help deliver science investigations, cargo and supplies to the crews living in space.

According to NASA, Boeing and SpaceX will soon help carry astronauts to and from the ISS. And in 2018, President Donald Trump ordered the creation of a new military branch that would deal with space related operations, the Space Force.

At the time, he said the US will fall behind China and Russia if it doesn’t start putting more resources into space defense.

Donald Trump, US President: “The future of America space leadership. We’re going to lead again. It’s been a long time; it’s been over twenty-five years. And we’re opening up and we are going to be leading again like we’ve never led before.

We’re a nation of pioneers and the next great American frontier is space. And we never completed. We started, but we never completed. We stopped.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 

 

Questions

1. Who were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin? What were Armstrong’s famous words?

2. Did US presidents support space exploration and travel?

3. The Americans were the first to venture into space. True or false?

4. The US president directly controls and directs the US space program. Is this correct or incorrect?

5. Did the US decide on, plan and then go to the moon all in 1969?

6. Now, only the US government is involved with space exploration. Is this right or wrong?

7. In the future, will there be more, less or the same amount of space exploration?
 
 

A. Astronauts from my country have flown into space. Yes or no?

B. My friends and I would like to become astronauts. True or false? Would you like to travel in space (as a space tourist)?

C. What might happen in the future?

D. Are there many books, movies, TV shows about space travel and exploration?

E. Should governments and the private sector invest more in space programs?