The story in brief
A beeping ball panics a superpower. A carpenter’s son flies around the world. A president bets on the Moon, both sides bury their astronauts, and three men read Genesis over the Moon on Christmas Eve. Then two men walk on it, and six years later the rivals shake hands in orbit.
The chapters
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Chapter 1 · 5 min · Free
Beep, Beep
A metal ball the size of a beach ball beeps over America, and a superpower panics.
Sources: TASS report, Pravda, 5 October 1957; Eisenhower, news conference, 9 October 1957; Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo
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Chapter 2 · 5 min · Free
Poyekhali!
A carpenter’s son climbs into a steel ball and says one word as the engines roar.
Sources: Vostok 1 radio log (ESA); NASA Project Mercury; Soviet and US stamps, 1961 to 1963
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Chapter 3 · 5 min
We Choose the Moon
A president bets on the Moon, and the man who can build the rocket has a past.
Sources: Kennedy, memo of 20 April 1961, message of 25 May 1961, Rice University, 12 September 1962; Neufeld, Smithsonian
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Chapter 4 · 5 min
Fire and Earthrise
Both sides bury their men. Then three Americans fly around the Moon and look back.
Sources: Apollo 204 Review Board (1967); Apollo 8 onboard tape and air-to-ground transcript (Apollo Flight Journal)
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Chapter 5 · 5 min
One Small Step
Alarms, boulders and seconds of fuel. Then the most famous sentence ever spoken, maybe missing a word.
Sources: Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (Apollo 11); Apollo Flight Journal (Apollo 13); NASA History, Apollo-Soyuz
Who’s who
The people you meet. Each one is a hero card you can collect.
- Sergei KorolevThe Chief Designer · Survivor of Kolyma · Builder of the R-7
- Yuri GagarinFirst Human in Space · Pilot of Vostok 1 · A Carpenter’s Son
- Wernher von BraunEngineer of the V-2 · SS Officer · Builder of the Saturn V
- Alexei LeonovFirst Spacewalker · Painter · Commander of Soyuz 19
- Michael CollinsCommand Module Pilot · Alone Behind the Moon · Writer
- Neil ArmstrongCommander of Apollo 11 · First on the Moon · Test Pilot
What you’ll be able to tell
This story belongs to the journey “The Race”. By the end of it, you can tell why Moscow won most of the firsts, and the word Armstrong may have dropped.
Sources
- NASA mission transcripts (Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo Lunar Surface Journal)
- Presidential papers (American Presidency Project)
- TASS and Pravda, 1957
- Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo (NASA, 2000)
- Michael Neufeld (Smithsonian)
