Almost half a century ago, the American space agency, NASA, was enthusiastically preparing to land on the moon in a race against the dissolved Soviet Union, and the test and launch campaigns were nonstop in a race against time, specifically to honor former President John F. Kennedy, who pledged in 1961 that his country would land the first spacecraft On the moon and back safely before the end of the decade.

America will face this challenge on July 20, 1969 AD. All effort was built on sacrifice and tragedy. About eight astronauts died in plane crashes or vehicle tests. Many of the ground crew and NASA workers perished during those accidents, while dozens of test pilots died. In the decades before Apollo.

The Apollo experiment was unique, says John Logsdon, a professor of space at George Washington University, (it was more a warlike military experience more like a great battle or conquest than space activities). To see how the Apollo program differed from the efforts of human flight today, it is important to go back to the post-World War II era, during this time test pilots were breaking the sound barrier, reaching supersonic speeds.

In the late 1940s, these pilots came from either the Navy, the Air Force, or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA), the flagship company of NASA created in 1958. Howard C. Tech, the first engineering pilot at NASA and the fourth person to break The sound barrier in a California desert, but on May 3, 1948 the Lily's Douglas D-558-1 engine compressor failed, the control cables were cut and the plane crashed.

He was the first NASA pilot to die in the line of duty. A month later, Captain Glenn, Edwards, and four crew members were killed in their experimental aircraft known as the "Flying Wing." The California flight facility was renamed to Edwards Air Force Base. Test pilots every month at Edwards.

By the time the space program began in the early 1960s, many pilots entered experiments with survivors on NASA's team of astronauts, and others combined an experimental experience and science background, such as college-educated engineers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, says former NASA historian NASA Roger Launius on test pilots who would later become astronaut candidates: (These were people who were used to taking risks but whose families weren't used to it), was always devastating to wives and children, and Armstrong's first space flight ended in disaster.

Not only were the astronauts more accepting of risks, Launius says, they also knew that their planes and possibly spacecraft might fail. Armstrong himself faced disaster during his first space mission (Gemini 8), and after a significant failure on board, Armstrong and pilot David Scott began Out of control in space, and after struggling to resist black holes, Armstrong eventually regained control and landed safely on Earth, these former pilots flew planes from the base to undergo training as astronauts.

Theodore Freeman, a member of the first group of 14 astronauts on Apollo, died in October 1964 when his T-38 engine malfunctioned near Houston. In February 1966, the plane of astronauts Elliott C and Charles Bassett crashed due to bad weather. As they approached Lambert Field in St. Louis, perhaps the most horrific disaster on Earth occurred, Gol Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee of Apollo 1 died in a cockpit fire on January 27, 1967 while strapped to their command unit during a test ride. Launching at the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA faced a lot of pressure from Congress and the public. There were skeptics from both Congress and the American public about whether the moon mission was worth both the cost in lives and money. The U.S. Congress focused on the causes of the Apollo 1 fire, while civil rights leader Reverend James led Abernathy protesting the allocation of the spending program on space while the country is in poverty.

By the time Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins prepared for Apollo 11 in July 1969, both NASA astronauts and observers were confident that the mission would be a success, and this was confirmed by countless hours of human experimentation and engineering work invested to ensure the men could return to Earth. their homes safely, they wanted to make sure they were trained for any situation; Sometimes they would train seven or eight hours.

The level of severity and sacrifice in the Moon landing programs was unique and, as many historians argue, unlikely to be repeated, even if humans decided to reach beyond Earth to return to the Moon or perhaps Mars.