Narrative Essay About Space Exploration

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My first introduction into space began with the maiden voyage of the spaceship, Jupiter 2. Its mission was to visit the planet circling the star Alpha Centauri. I remember clearly the night our entire family gathered in the living room around the television set to watch the unfolding of one of history’s greatest adventures-man’s colonization of space beyond the stars premier. This historic flight, preceded by nearly a decade of intense research and preparation had been shrouded by the most rigorous security precautions. Other nations in even more desperate need for breathing room on our critically overcrowded planet were racing the United States in this project. Countries that would go to any length of sabotage… Well not really, but it…show more content…
Kennedy famously urged America “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard” The country, along with the rest of the world was enthralled by the possibilities of space exploration. Dinner conversations with World War II veterans in attendance, amplified that a new conflict had begun, known as the Cold War. The battle pitted the world’s two great powers-the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union-against each other. I recall hearing from my elders that each country was seeking to prove superiority in military and technology and that space would be another dramatic arena for this competition. Sputnik was a word of foreign extraction, heard in an unpleasant and hostile tone, Russian for “traveler” it was the name chosen by the Soviets for the world’s first artificial satellite object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. With the grand American tradition of exploration, the atmosphere became absolute crucial not to lose this race to the next frontier of space to the Soviets. I recall from beginning to end, the American public’s attention was captivated by the space race; the national sentiment was in favor of the government supporting the Apollo program with each new development being heavily covered in the newspapers. When Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface and famously called the moment “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” every living room in the neighborhood was illuminated by the glow of the television set, I can still hear the distance cheers of families echoing from the open windows of that summer in

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