Looking at Project Apollo Through a Political Lens

The history of America’s moon landing viewed through the lens of political propaganda.
Muir-Harmony, curator of the Project Apollo collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, writes that no one foresaw the worldwide acclaim that greeted the Soviet launch of Sputnik in October 1957. Within months, the world cheered a second, larger satellite containing a dog and then watched America’s first satellite attempt explode on the launchpad. American media fumed, and polls revealed that nations throughout the globe considered the Soviet Union the leader in science and technology. By 1961, the Soviets had orbited a man, and newly elected President John F. Kennedy, reeling from the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, proposed to send men to the moon. Innumerable books describe the technical details of Project Apollo, but the author maintains her focus on politics, which means that space buffs will find little new information. Emphasizing that the goal was restoring the United States’ unchallenged world leadership, she delivers a knowledgeable, detailed, and overlong description of “the largest public relations campaign in world history.”