To the Moon

Explain space exploration and its importance.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 76

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite. Americans were stunned. The Cold War had reached space. The United States created NASA to catch up.
In 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. President Kennedy then set a bold goal: land a person on the Moon before the decade was over.
Hundreds of thousands of people worked on the goal. Katherine Johnson, a Black mathematician at NASA, worked out flight paths by hand. John Glenn asked for Johnson to check the numbers before orbiting Earth.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on its surface, while Michael Collins circled above. Armstrong said it was one giant leap for mankind.
Space exploration gave us weather satellites, better computers, and a new view of our home planet. Americans had won the race, and all of us got a picture of Earth from far away.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS5H6.d — Discuss the significance of the technologies of television and space exploration.