The New York Times and other news media around the world celebrated the moon landing of July 20, 1969, reporting on the scientific and technological achievement. The event marked the United States’ lead in the space race, yielded invaluable information about the moon’s surface, and gave impetus to further space exploration.
Newspaper and Current Periodical Division, Library of Congress
“Men Land on Moon: 2 Astronauts Avoid Crater, Set Craft on a Rocky Plain,” The New York Times, July 21, 1969
Race to the Moon
In the 1950s the United States and the Soviet Union both began programs for manned and unmanned scientific missions into space. Spurred by the Soviets’ successful 1957 launch of the unmanned Sputnik 1 satellite, Congress initiated the U.S. civilian space program. Winning the space race became a political, scientific, and security priority, intensified after President John F. Kennedy and Congress set a national goal of being first to send an astronaut to the moon.
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 earth.
- President John F. Kennedy, “Urgent National Needs” Speech, May 25, 1961
The New York Times and other news media around the world celebrated the moon landing of July 20, 1969, reporting on the scientific and technological achievement. The event marked the United States’ lead in the space race, yielded invaluable information about the moon’s surface, and gave impetus to further space exploration.
Newspaper and Current Periodical Division, Library of Congress
