Bedtime Biography: Shoot for the Moon summary

On October 5, 1957, America woke up to some unsettling news. All across the nation, people sat down to breakfast, opened their newspapers, switched on their radios and televisions, and were shocked. The Soviet Union – America’s bitter rival in the Cold War – had launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first satellite.

Americans gazed up to the heavens in horror as the shiny metal ball whizzed across the sky, miles above their heads.

To get a person into space, you need a big rocket. And back in the 1950s, building a rocket big and powerful enough wasn’t easy – as we’ve already learned, America’s first space rocket exploded in a massive ball of flames. To help them design a rocket that could get them to the stars, the Americans turned to a man who had recently been considered an enemy. His name was Wernher von Braun. And he was the expert in building rockets.

Von Braun had made his name running the German rocket program in the Second World War. In this role, he built the first-ever long-range missile, the V-2 rocket. It was a devastating weapon: V-2s caused destruction across England and the Netherlands in the later years of the war. They were so sophisticated that Allied forces could do absolutely nothing to stop them.

Just three weeks after Alan Shepard’s mission, US President John Kennedy announced an ambitious new plan to Congress. He told the assembled senators and representatives that the Americans were going to land a man on the moon, and get him home again. And they were going to do this by the end of the decade. Everyone in the chamber knew: this was a very ambitious goal.

At the time, NASA was struggling to find the power to launch a 2,500-pound craft into space. The President was asking them to find a way to launch something 100 times as heavy.

Apollo 1 was due to launch on February 21, 1967. Before launch day, NASA demanded lots and lots of tests and rehearsals to ensure the mission would be safe and secure. With four weeks to go before liftoff, NASA scheduled a takeoff rehearsal.

At 1:00 p.m. on January 27, NASA engineers strapped astronauts Virgil Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee into their seats. They sealed the spacecraft’s hatches, pressurized the capsule, and pumped in pure oxygen. The astronauts began running through the huge preflight checklist, while ground crews labored to fix some minor technical issues.

On the morning of July 16, the astronauts ate breakfast and headed to the suit room. Their urine-collection devices were installed and their oxygen supplies and spacesuits fitted. Finally, their plastic bubble helmets were locked into place.

They stepped into an elevator, which took them up the huge launch tower. Then they crossed a bridge and entered the Apollo spacecraft. Ground crew buckled them in, and the door was shut. The astronauts then busied themselves preparing the spacecraft for the mission.

You’ve reached the end of this Bedtime Biography. Thank you for listening. Why not pause listening now so you can stay in a relaxed state? And if you’re off to bed now, I wish you a good night’s sleep.