When President Kennedy of the United States announced that Americans would land on the moon in the late 1960s, people were skeptical. After all, at that time, humans had just barely flown out of the Earth's atmosphere. It wasn't until they saw Armstrong standing on the surface of the moon on television that people began to believe that humans had the ability to explore the unknown worlds beyond Earth.
The moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. Since ancient times, humans have wanted to explore its mysteries. In the early 1960s, the United States proposed the famous "Apollo" lunar landing program. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first person to fly into space, which greatly shocked the US government. Then-US President Kennedy immediately ordered to vigorously promote the "Apollo" lunar landing program, aiming to promote the development of US aerospace technology through this program and surpass the Soviet Union.
After multiple simulated flights and lunar orbiting flights, on July 16, 1969, the "Apollo 11" spacecraft successfully launched and landed near the Sea of Tranquility on the surface of the moon four days later on July 20. More than six hours later, Neil Armstrong stepped down the ladder and onto the surface of the moon, saying a long-anticipated famous quote: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Subsequently, Buzz Aldrin also stepped out of the lunar module and onto the surface of the moon. The two astronauts spent about 2.5 hours on the surface of the moon, collecting 21.55 kg of lunar rocks and soil samples. On July 24, the "Apollo 11" completed the lunar landing mission and returned to Earth. This mission verified the possibility of humans landing on another planet and returning successfully, and accumulated rich experience for subsequent actions.
The entire "Apollo" lunar landing program began in 1961 and ended at the end of 1972, making it the largest lunar exploration project of NASA to date. During this period, a total of seven spacecraft flew to the moon, all of which were successful except for the "Apollo 13" that aborted the lunar landing directly and returned. Twelve astronauts stepped onto the surface of the moon and conducted a series of scientific activities. Astronauts conducted on-the-spot investigations of the physical and chemical characteristics of the lunar surface through various scientific means and brought back more than 380 kg of lunar rocks for laboratory analysis and research. China was also gifted with 1 gram of lunar rock samples in 1978, some of which were preserved and exhibited in the Beijing Planetarium, and others were handed over to Chinese scientists for scientific research.
Objectively speaking, the implementation of the "Apollo" program greatly promoted the development of US aerospace technology. In order to achieve the goal of sending humans to the moon and returning safely, more than 20,000 enterprises, universities, and research institutions in the United States participated in the "Apollo" program, producing thousands of scientific research results and promoting the emergence of a large number of new materials and new technologies. In addition, the economic stimulus effect of the entire "Apollo" program was not negligible, with an input-output ratio of 1:14. Many of the research results at that time were later transformed into civilian use, creating a large amount of social wealth and enabling the United States to leap to the peak of the world's aerospace field.