Apollo 11 Mission Notes

Apollo missions cost $24,000,000,000$ , approximately $156,000,000,000$ in today's dollars.
Not everyone supported the space program due to its high cost.
The Poor People's Campaign protested outside Cape Canaveral before the Apollo 11 launch.
Civil rights leaders argued that the money spent on space exploration could be used to help poor people on Earth.
There were questions raised about the lack of black astronauts and the limited number of black engineers/scientists at NASA.
African Americans believed that the space program should include people of every race.
Black women, like Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, contributed significantly to the US space program as mathematicians.

Katherine Johnson worked on the analysis that made the moon landing possible.
She and her sorority sisters gathered to watch the moon landing news.
Over 400,000 people worked as a team to send the spacecraft to the moon.
Katherine felt anxious and couldn't relax until the astronauts safely returned to Earth.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.
$600,000,000$ + people watched the event on TV.
Neil Armstrong said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
The landing was the most dangerous part of the mission and was impossible to rehearse.
Neil Armstrong estimated a 50/50 chance of success for the first landing attempt.
Katherine Johnson was confident in her calculations.

Katherine Johnson knew the astronauts had a limited time to return to the lunar lander and reconnect with the mother ship.
She was concerned about their journey back to Earth, including atmospheric re-entry and ocean landing.
After the successful mission, NASA had six more Apollo missions planned.
Katherine and her colleagues discussed future missions to Mars and grand tours to other planets like Jupiter and Saturn.
Katherine believed that anything was possible, building on previous achievements.