We came in peace
IT WAS A “GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND,” and it was taken at 12:56pm on July 21, 1969, Australian Eastern Standard Time. Six hundred million people, one sixth of the global population at the time, watched the Apollo 11 moonwalk live on television. What most people didn’t realise was that those TV pictures were being received in Australia as a result of Australian expertise. What were the circumstances that brought about this amazing event and why was Australia involved in the first place? The story begins in 1961.
The Cold War
The Apollo 11 lunar landing was the culmination of an incredible decade of frenetic activity in the United States. It was conceived as a Cold War geopolitical exercise by a newly inaugurated, young US President, wanting to demonstrate the superiority of the democratic way of life over that of communism.
No sooner had President John F. Kennedy taken office in January 1961, than his problems began to mount. Geopolitically, 1961 was a terrible year. Ever since the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 satellite had been launched in 1957, the United States had been humbled by a succession of Soviet space firsts, shattering its image of scientific pre-eminence. Then, on April 12, 1961, just weeks into Kennedy’s new administration, the US was beaten once again by the Soviet Union
