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"On Moon" QuickTime movie, 550Kb, 260x195.
| | On Moon
July 20 is celebrated in the United States as "Space Exploration Day", in memory of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon's surface in 1969. The vast program of scientific and technical support that culminated in this moment involved many centers of excellence. It was a German by birth, Werner von Braun, who led the team that developed the Saturn V rockets capable of delivering the payload to the Moon. In 1945 von Braun, Germany's leading rocket specialist and the developer of the first long-distance ballistic rocket - the A-4 - had been taken prisoner by American troops. The USA's Juno-1 rocket (which launched the country's first satellite) was built under his direction. Following this and Yuri Gagarin's epoch-making orbit of the Earth, President Kennedy had called for the Apollo program to brighten the United States' prestige by landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. | |  |
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