USA vs Soviet Union
Why did we go to the moon in the first place? The Cold War. America was competing with Russia, or USSR at the time, to proof that we have better technology with a capital country instead of communism like Russia. In 1958, USSR launched a manned-rocket to space. America realized that USSR is beating them. So NASA was made the same year. In 1961 at a speech for John F. Kennedy, he said that America will have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. So we started the Apollo program. It would be missions giving us information about space, and the moon, and before the last mission, a man will be on the moon. USSR found out, and that started the Space Race. USSR was competing with America to get a man on the moon. Russia started with having lunar crash landings, and even lunar soft landings, but all where unmanned. In May of 1969, Apollo 10 launched. it just orbited the moon, but it didn't land. But we got good information of the moon, so NASA knew they could launch Apollo 11 moon landing in June. There was about 6 moon landings total, which finished the Space Race, and America won. But the Cold War went on.