2001_ A Space Odyssey Theme song

In this podcast, the hosts discuss the moon landing. They talk about how it started with Alan Shepard's trip to space in 1961. President Kennedy then set a goal to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. NASA was formed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the Mercury Project was launched. Three men, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, were chosen for the Apollo 11 mission. They had previous experience in space. The Apollo 11 rocket was made of special materials and was sent to the moon successfully. However, there are conspiracy theories that say the moon landing was faked. Some argue that the flag waving, lack of stars in the footage, and radiation exposure cast doubt on its authenticity. The theorists believe the US faked the landing to assert its dominance during the Cold War. Despite the controversy, the moon landing was a significant achievement for mankind and represents the potential for further exploration and colonization in space Hello and welcome back to the best podcast in Mr. Weaver's English class. We back at it again with Milo, Noah, and me, Rohit. Today we're going to discuss the moon landing. The story starts in 1961 when the United States sent the first man, Alan Shepard, aboard the Freedom 7 to space. Shepard got into space three weeks after the first Russian was sent to space. John F. Kennedy, the president at the time, gave a speech a year later in 1962. He talked about how his dream was to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade. That would soon be a reality, but it wouldn't be possible without certain individuals and certain creations. NASA, who we know today as the worldwide leader in space exploration, began in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the Mercury Project. Alan Shepard was a part of the Mercury Project and the Mercury 7, who were the first US men to go to space. Beginning in the 1960s, space was becoming an avenue of competition as the ability to control the atmosphere of Earth and to control space was too big a pass up for major world powers. Three men joined the space program within a year of each other in the early 1960s. These three men were pilots in the Korean War and two were West Point graduates. Their names were Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. These men were astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission. These men were experienced. Each of them flew in Gemini missions to space before they went to the moon. Aldrin was on Gemini 12 and performed three spacewalks. Armstrong was on Gemini 8 and had over 1,100 hours testing supersonic crafts. Collins was on Gemini 10 and was a successful test pilot in the Air Force. This would be your crew on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. All they needed would be a craft. The Apollo 8 rocket was sent seven months earlier to the moon. It was a Siren 5 rocket and it was the first manned flight towards the moon. The flight was success proving that these three men could get on the moon. The Apollo 11 rocket itself was made of an aluminum honeycomb sandwich bonded between sheet aluminum alloy. The base of the rocket consisted of a heat shield made of brazed stainless steel honeycomb filled with phenolphthalein epoxy resin. This rocket's design and materials were tested to be successful and sure to get these three men to the moon. NASA had their crew, they had their rocket, now it was time to launch. They would launch in July 1969 out of the Kennedy Space Station and NASA knew this would be a success. After years of hard work, they would finally fulfill Kennedy's dream. But did the American government really fulfill Kennedy's dream? Because according to many sources, the moon landing could have possibly been faked. Many scientists agree with this argument while others deny it, as the whole purpose of this amazing atrocity was to simply better the Soviets. But astrology wasn't the main reason of why all this even took place, but rather because there had been an ongoing war between the two powerhouses for some time now and the debate over who got to space quicker would put one in advantage over the other. But anyway, today's topic of discussion is not about the Cold War itself, but more about the conspiracies it made around what got Americans on top. On the footage of the moon landing, there are a lot of sketchy elements that make it seem rather fake, some of them being that the flag mounted by the American astronauts was waving. Even though there is no air in the moon, NASA says that the flag was moving because of astronaut Buzz Aldrin. He was adjusting the flag as he planted it on the surface of the moon and this caused the fabric of the American flag to wave. In a more inductive analysis, the sun radiation would have killed the traveling astronauts while passing through the Earth's Van Allen veils. NASA once again denies it, stating that because of the short amount of time the astronauts were on the moon, they were exposed to very little radiation. We can also observe that in the footage of the moon landing, the camera portrayed a starless sky. Maybe the quality of the video wasn't great so it wasn't really able to capture it, but that's debatable. But why would the United States fake it even in the first place? Because feeding the space race improved American dominance, which was just what America wanted throughout the Cold War. Theorists say that the U.S. faked the space achievements to put fear into Russia and send a message to the world. The message that Neil Armstrong sent to the world, one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, illustrates how much of a breakthrough the moon landing was. His small step onto the lunar surface meant that the human race had left the confines of the Earth's atmosphere and can now settle the final frontier, space. We had been in space before but never on solid ground like the moon. Just like our ancestors had conquered the whole world, we had started the same process on the moon. We had already conquered the entire world, but now the moon landing just is proof that we had started doing the same in space. The fact that we could step on land in space shows us how far we have come as a civilization and how much further we can go. Now we need to expand our efforts into having a permanent colonization on the moon and then further beyond. And there you go, Mr. Weaver's distinguished English class. As this amazing podcast comes to an end, we hope that you have truly enjoyed this and learned a lot about the moon landing. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching.