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Yuri Gagarin

Practical rather than idealistic reasons pushed President Kennedy to challenge America to land a man on the moon within the decade

Gazing up at the Texas night sky from his ranch, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson did not know what to make of Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite launched into orbit by a Soviet missile on October 4, 1957. But an aide’s memorandum stoked his political juices.

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