Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a two-part story.

When doing the dedication for the opening of the manned spaceflight facility in Houston, TX, President Kennedy stood at the podium in Rice University’s football stadium. The opening line that introduces the title statement of this article was; “Why go to the Moon …?” He finishes the list with “Why does Rice play Texas?” Rice will probably never have the football program that is a perennial powerhouse, like the Texas Longhorns. Yet they play one another every year, and have since 1915. Coincidentally, Rice tied Texas in 1962, shortly after Kennedy’s speech. Rice has only beaten Texas twice in the 62 years since.

So why did we really go to the Moon?

You could bandy all day about the scientific knowledge to be gained, or about going to the moon “…in peace for all mankind.” You would be wrong. We went to the moon to prove a very expensive political pont: our way was better than the Soviet way, and the highest frontier would be where we would demonstrate the best and brightest of the USA to the world. There are several points along the way that could have ended that pursuit. I’ll take you through two of them, noting that until 1966, “The Soviets continue to hold the lead in space”-Walter Cronkite.

The Gemini program:

Docking: Part of the mission profile of the upcoming Apollo missions was to detach and dock the Command Module with the Lunar Module while en route to the Moon.

This hadn’t been done before, and there was serious concern about being able to pull off such a maneuver safely. Enter the hero of our story, Dr. Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz earned his Doctoral degree in Orbital Mechanics at M.I.T. His dissertation topic: docking spacecraft, while traveling at 17,500 MPH, meeting at a porthole 24” wide.

Gemini VIII accomplished this feat in 1966, with Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott (who would both go on to command Lunar missions) at the controls, using Buzz’s careful calculations as a guide.

Unfortunately, one of the Gemini’s thrusters was locked open, causing the twin spacecraft to spin. Had Armstrong not regained control of the craft, the astronauts could have lost consciousness.

It is at that point that we overtook the Soviets in the race for the Moon.

Gemini IX: Astronaut Eugene Cernan’s disastrous, almost fatal spacewalk (EVA). Gene Cernan, who would be the last man to set foot on the moon in 1972 so far, was doing a spacewalk, to retrieve an experiment, and spent over two hours trying to complete the tasks assigned to him.

His heart rate soared to 180 beats per minute, and he was likely suffering from heat exhaustion. Gemini X’s Pete Conrad experienced similar difficulties. On Gemini XII, things got better. Without an EVA, there was no way to get to the Moon using NASA’s current mission profile. re-enter the hero of our story, Buzz Aldrin. Buzz trained in a mockup of his capsule in a school swimming pool in Maryland, carrying out all of the tasks needed to perform on an EVA. And he achieved his objectives flawlessly.

A combination of buoyancy training, and the inclusion by NASA of foot and handholds on the exterior of the spacecraft, made the jobs much easier to do.

As if to put an exclamation point to his contribution, when the guidance system failed on Aldrin’s vehicle, he whipped out a slide rule and some scratch paper, and worked out the programming to be inserted in the ship’s computer. Gemini XII docked with the orbiting docking platform, and the mission was a resounding success.

The rest, as they say, is history.

On July 16, 1969: the launch of Apollo XI to the moon, and Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Neil and Buzz would land on the Moon, while Michael remained aboard the command module.

Shortly after 10:30 p.m. EDT, Neil began his descent down the Lunar Module’s ladder, and changed us for good.

The story is well known, but who talks about it these days?