The moon race was made up of the United States and Russia. What the Russians were most interested in is to orbit the moon for the 50^th anniversary Russian Revolution, but they never did it. In 1963 U.S. Apollo 8 orbited the moon so the U.S. won that round. This race continued to Apollo 11 when the United States and Russia raced to see who could go to the moon first. The United States winning that round let them win the race.

In 1957 the United States and Russia were testing their spacecrafts for the lunar mission. The spacecraft the Russians were using the Soyoz. Instead of plunging into the ocean they designed it to land on Earth. The two main objectives for the cosmonauts were to orbit the moon in the shape of an eight and complete the first lunar landing. The Soyoz is still being used today. The Soyoz is used as a lifeboat for the International Space Station.

The ship the United States is working on is the Apollo spacecraft. The Apollo spacecraft’s command center is fit to hold 3 people. The command module is connected to the cylinder service module. The cylinder module is with life support and electrical power. The other module is the lunar module. The lunar module is the transport vehicle that goes on the moon.

In July 16, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldren Junior, and Micheal Collins were the first to set foot on the moon. On the moon they collected rocks and soil also took thousands of pictures. They used special tools to send the information they gathered back to Earth. Also when they were on the moon they took the temperature, measured the gravity, and measured the distance from Earth to the moon. A TV camera on the side of the Lunar Module sent blurry pictures of the astronauts. Neil Armstrong's first words when he stepped on the Moon were "One small step for a man; One giant leap for mankind."

To lighten the spacecraft they left some equipment behind. They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. NASA immediately unloaded the lunar's material, astronauts, and all the equipment that went to the moon. They spent a total time of 21 ½ hours on the moon. They returned to Earth with 48 pounds of rock and soil. The equipment was put to the side to see if any germs or any other harmful things had been brought back from the Moon. Nothing was found.

In the year 1967 bad things happened to bolt Russia and United States. In January the crew of a test flight for Apollo the ship caught on fire.