he Apollo 11 mission objective was simple: “Perform a manned lunar landing and return.” However, this mission was anything but simple, for it took years of preparation, dozens of tests, and even a few failures before Neil Armstrong took those first momentous steps on the moon. This event culminated years of effort in the “space race” against the Soviet Union and granted the United States an undisputed victory. For Americans, beating the Soviets to the moon honored the words of President Kennedy's challenge to get to the moon by the end of the decade, granted a victory for capitalism over communism, and proved U.S. superiority in the fields of science and technology. The media and the world looked on in amazement as the first humans set foot on another planet. In the end, it did not matter what nationality the astronauts were, because as Neil Armstrong said it was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”