Fact 1: Humans first landed on the Moon in the late 1960s.
Fact 2: We haven’t visited the Moon much more ever since.
Question: Why?

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Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• Why did people go to the Moon in the first place?
• When did the last landing on the Moon take place?
• Why did Americans lose interest in space race and when did this happen?
• What would Craig need if he had to go to the Moon? What would you need?
• What does Neil Armstrong think about further exploration of the Moon?
• Do you think going to the Moon makes sense now?

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Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words. Use ONE word per blank space.

The Cold War-inspired “space race” and “Moon race” ________ the Soviet Union and the United States of America accelerated with a focus ________ the Moon. This included many scientifically important firsts, ________ as the first photographs of the then-unseen far side of the Moon in 1959 _________ the Soviet Union, and culminated ________ the landing of the first humans on the Moon in 1969, widely seen around the world ________ one of the pivotal events of the 20th century, and indeed of human history ________ general.

________ first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, ­­­­­________ made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959 by the Soviet probe Luna 3. Though vague by today’s standards, the photos showed ________ the far side of the Moon almost completely lacked maria. In ________ effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of landing ________ human on the Moon. Speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on May 26, 1961, he said

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself ________ achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely ________ the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive ________ mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space.”

________ December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, became the first human beings to enter lunar orbit and see the far side of the Moon in person. Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first human to walk on ________ lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11. The first robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17, 1970 ________ part of the Lunokhod programme. To date, the last human to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, ________ as part of the mission Apollo 17, walked on the Moon in December 1972.

Moon rock samples ________ brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (except Apollo 13, which aborted its planned lunar landing).

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s ________ were 65 Moon landings (with 10 in 1971 alone), but after Luna 24 in 1976 they suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus and space stations and the U.S. on Mars and beyond, and on the Skylab and Space Shuttle programs.

From Wikipedia. Click here for answers.

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