From red star rising to rocket's red glare: space travel, the early years

摘要

'We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.' President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 12 September 1962. It is now 50 years since the first artificial satellite was launched. This article looks at the early years of space travel and some of the key moments during that time.