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Turning Small Steps Into Giant Leaps: Nasa’S Genesis And Its Culmination In The Apollo Program, Hunter L. Maples

Masters Theses

On July 16, 1969, NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong dropped himself onto the dusty surface of the Moon, momentarily followed by his lunar module pilot, Buzz Aldrin. It is simple to recognize the clear historical significance of the Apollo moon landings. It can also be easy, however, to overlook the work of thousands of individuals and decades of development that culminated in a lunar voyage. Because the moon landings were unprecedented, the hardware required had to be developed from scratch and mission protocol had to be written. Additionally, the United States was competing against its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, …