Foreword by Charles M. Duke
Brigadier General, Apollo 16 Astronaut
What you are about to read is the true story of "the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.". These were the appropriate and strong words that President Kennedy used in 1961, when he set the goal for the American people of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth, before the end of that decade.
As astronaut and Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 16 mission, I was privileged to take part in that great adventure. I was one of the twelve men that actually got to walk on the Moon and - evidently - was also returned safely to the Earth, as promised by the President.
The American people fulfilled this audacious goal by the hard work, skills and strong spirits of hundreds of thousands of good people - and not least, as I sincerely believe, by the grace of the good Lord.
So, why did the President want us to go to the Moon? How did we do it? And what did God and Christian faith have to do with this anyway? This book gives a sober, read-worthy and surprising set of answers to these questions, based on the historical account of events, and the testimonies of a great variety of people connected to the Space Race and the Apollo project, many of them my good friends and former colleagues.
I hope and pray, that you will find "We ask God's blessing" as intriguing and strengthening of faith as I did.
Blessings,
Charlie Duke
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| Charlie Duke, still going strong, have been working actively to spread the good word ever since he let Jesus Christ into his life in the mid 1970's. The moving story of personal conversion and how an entire family emerged from the darkness with the help of Jesus Christ is told in Charlie and Dorothy Duke's highly recommendable book "Moonwalker"[2]. Like his Astronaut colleague and moonwalker, the late James Irwin (Apollo 15), Duke and his wife Dorothy devoted their lives to preaching the good message. Thus, two of the twelve men who walked on the moon became preachers of Christ! |
Chapter 1: The Space Race
This great story begins in October 1957 at the height of the Cold War.
The Cold War from 1945 to 1989 was a struggle between the East and the West. The West was led by the USA, supported by the democratic nations of Western Europe and a number of nations around the world. The East was led by the Soviet Union, supported by an alliance of regimes in Eastern Europe. The Eastern Bloc was essentially a Russian empire, ruled heavy-handedly from Moscow by an elite of tyrants guided by the communist ideology.
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| Shortly after WW2 the world was divided into two parties. A steep divide, an "iron curtain" as Sir Winston Churchill named it, descended upon the world. |
Political and religious freedom prevailed in the West and western citizens could travel wherever they wanted. In the Eastern Bloc however, all forms of religious activity and non-communist political activity were strictly forbidden. The eastern citizens were even imprisoned in their own countries and were not allowed to travel outside the Eastern Bloc.
To make things worse, a crucial part of the communist ideology was to extend its brutal tyranny to the whole world, whatever the means. To stay free, the West had to defend itself. It was a war between freedom and tyranny and it meant the world who won.
As the name indicates, The Cold War had no direct military confrontations. It was "a battle for hearts and minds".
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| A key component of the Cold War was a prestige race to be number one in all areas of life: who had the highest agricultural production, the greatest number of scientists, doctors and teachers, the biggest industrial output, the biggest GNP, the most advanced technology, the fastest aircraft and who won the most medals at the Olympic games? It was not a game though. It was a war between freedom and tyranny, and meant the world who won. |
The eastern populations got their information only from the regime-controlled media, full of unscrupulous lies. The eastern media deliberately either failed to disclose or rewrote any news that might be unfavorable to the regime. The communist regimes preferred the goodwill of their people, but it wasn't crucial to their power. It was made abundantly clear on several occasions that they had no qualms about deploying the military against their own population.
Winning over public opinion among the Western populations was consequently the key issue. The East even had realistic hopes to influence public opinion in some Western European countries, and actually lure the populations there to freely chose communist tyranny.
So, a key component of the Cold War was a prestige race to be number one in all areas of life: who had the highest agricultural production, the greatest number of scientists, doctors and teachers, the biggest industrial output, the biggest GNP, the most advanced technology, the fastest aircraft and who won the most medals at the Olympic games?
And then in 1957, a new and important front in the Cold War was opened: "The Space Race".
Chapter 2: Sputnik 1957
On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, to orbit the Earth, taking the Americans completely by surprise. This feat on the part of the Soviet Empire sent shock waves throughout America and marked the beginning of the Space Race. For the next 15 years the Space Race would be the proving ground of the Cold War's battle for prestige.
Before Sputnik American aeronautics had focused with considerable success on constructing aircraft that were better, faster and could fly higher. Among other achievements, the Americans were the first to break the sound barrier (fly at the speed of sound, approx. 760 mph) with Chuck Yeager's flight in October 1947. The Russians didn't break the sound barrier until 1949. The Americans also had the upper hand when it came to high altitude flying when, for example, in 1956 "Kinch" Kincheloe was the first to fly higher than 100,000 feet. The Russians didn't reach 100,000 feet until five years later.
However, before 4 October 1957 it hadn't occurred to the Americans that space aeronautics could have a major impact extending far beyond its rather intriguing scientific content. The Americans were complacent and felt comparatively secure in their role as the dominant big brother in the field of military technology. The sudden reversal of roles to little brother came as a shock to the populations of the United States and Western Europe as well as to the American military and the American political leadership.
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| On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, to orbit the Earth, taking the Americans completely by surprise. This feat on the part of the Soviet Empire sent shock waves throughout America and marked the beginning of the Space Race. For the next 15 years, the Space Race set the stage for an unparalleled and perhaps never to be repeated demonstration of some of the finest human traits. |
The supporters of the Free World, humiliated, found themselves staring nervously into an uncertain future.
As it turned out the Space Race set the stage for an unparalleled and perhaps never to be repeated demonstration of some of the finest human traits: dedication, hard work, skills, cooperation, self-sacrifice and personal courage.
The American political reaction to Sputnik was quick in coming. In 1958 NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a federal agency founded in 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research, became NASA, the federal agency responsible for aerospace research. The new agency's task was clear: NASA was to get the space program up and running so that Americans would ultimately be number one in space as they had been in the lower atmosphere. The first item on the agenda was to send a man into space before the Russians did.
---- Thank you for reading so far - you will find chapters 3,4 and 5 in this post ----
References
[1] Apollo 16, Mag 114, AS16-114-18423, NASA, Scanned by Kipp Teague[2] Charlie and Dottie Duke, "Moonwalker", ISBN:0840791062
