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We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” the 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy said resolutely to a large crowd that had gathered around his podium at Rice University Stadium in Houston, Texas, on 12 September 1962. That day the politician had laid down a gauntlet to NASA. The space agency’s job was to find astronauts with the right stuff. Fortunately for NASA, the US wasn’t short of citizens wanting to step up to the challenge.
One of the first candidates came in the form of a tall former pilot of the US Navy. An individual who had seen action in the Korean War – flying 78 missions for a total of 121 hours – and later became an experimental research test pilot. He went by the name of Neil Armstrong.
To NASA, Armstrong was the perfect fit; the space agency had decided that some experience of flying jets was indeed much more valuable than any kind of scientific training. There were also time constraints, meaning that the team who would later land on the Moon in July 1969 would need to come well-equipped with experience. Naturally, NASA looked to the Navy and Air Force to make their selections, but it turned out that Armstrong – who was chosen as a candidate in 1962 – became the only successful civilian candidate. His future crewmates Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins would be selected the following year, fresh from the Air Force and raring to go, their flight capability backed up with degrees in aeronautical engineering and science.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Issue 107-Ausgabe von All About Space.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Issue 107-Ausgabe von All About Space.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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LONG AGO, A LAKE ON MARS MAY HAVE BEEN SPRAWLING WITH MICROBES
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MOON TOUR HELL
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THIS MONTH'S PLANETS
Most of the planets are tricky targets this month, but our guide will help you locate them
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UNIVERSE BEFORE TIME
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CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Alongside Earth, our planetary neighbourhood is changing, but it’s not for the better…
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Stars give tiny planets a gravitational 'squeeze' to strip away their atmospheres
A scientist has learned more about the violent processes that rip atmospheres away from planets, finding that squashing and squeezing by a parent star can contribute to this process.
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The Milky Way's halo is filled with ‘magnetic doughnuts' as wide as 100,000 light years
The outer halo of the Milky Way is filled with magnetic fields that take the shape of vast doughnuts with diameters ranging from 12,000 to 100,000 light years, with the heart of our galaxy at their centre.
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The Pentagon wants the commercial space reserve to support military satellites in orbit
The US Department of Defense is developing a plan to use the ever-growing American commercial space industry for national security purposes.
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DOES A COSMIC 'GLITCH' IN GRAVITY CHALLENGE ALBERT EINSTEIN'S GREATEST THEORY?
Gravity changes once you reach a cosmic scale
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DEEP SKY CHALLENGE : STELLAR TREASURES OF THE ARCHER AND SCORPION
Summer skies are stuffed full of amazing objects for your telescope - if you're prepared to stay up late