12 Incredible Facts About The First Moon Landing

12 Incredible Facts About The First Moon Landing — page 3
On September 12 1962 President John F Kennedy gave a famous speech at Rice University in Houston Texas Kennedy said he wanted the United States to be the first country to send someone to the moon and back And he wanted to do it before the end of the decade In 1962 however US astronauts had only orbited Earth for a few hours at a time Getting to the moon in less than 10 years would take a lot of work So the astronauts first logged many hours in space as part of Project Gemini Gemini was named after twins from Greek mythology It was a series of two person missions from 1964 to 1966 The astronauts who would be part of the first moon landing Neil Armstrong Michael Collins and Edwin Buzz Aldrin all flew Gemini missions Gemini gave astronauts a chance to practice the skills and techniques they would need on a trip to the moon They changed orbits They even docked Gemini with other Astronaut Ed White performed the first US walk in space as part of Project Gemini PROJECT GEMINI PREPARES ASTRONAUTS 2 6