Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff

On July 16, 1969, NASA launched a shuttle into space containing Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. They were going to be the first people to step foot on the Moon. This mission into the unknown caused a commotion on Earth. Many reputable news sources across the world created various sources about this event. These are weighted with the high emotions that ran through the world as well as the facts gathered as the brave men first put their footprints on the barren surface of the Moon. The creators of each peice used logos, pathos, and ethos to get the desired response from their audiences.

The author of the speech is the US president Ronald Reagan, who a few hours after the fall of the shuttle tried to comfort the grieving country by the emotional speech. The audience is the American nation, which was shocked by what happened. Over the last quarter century, scientists and astronauts made 55 US space missions, and their successful return to the Earth was perceived as a matter

on May 25, 1961, he stood before congress to deliver a special message on “urgent national needs.” He asked for an additional $7 billion dollar to $9 billion dollar over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation’s lagging space efforts. Skeptics questioned the ability of the NASA to meet the President’s timetable. Within a year, however, Alan Shepard Gus Grissom became the first two Americans to travel into

Perhaps no greater tragedy defines the American Race for Space than the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger before millions of Americans as they watched on live TV in 1986. Building on two decades of successful space exploration kicked off by President Kennedy before his death, by the early eighties the American culture both believed that it was our right to fly into space and that no one did it better than we did. NASA had sent mission after mission into space over more than twenty years, each one accomplishing space exploration goals and building the reputation that America owned the stars. That day in January of 1986 was supposed to be another of those successes as the Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying not only professional astronauts into space but also one everyday person, teacher Christa McAuliffe. Instead, the world watched as after seventy-three seconds after liftoff hopes and dreams exploded with the Challenger - leaving astronauts dead, the space program in jeopardy and America grieving and looking for answers. How leadership responded, what they said and did, would be really important to how the nation dealt with the loss and to the future of the space program. The man for the job was President Ronald Reagan, whose address to the nation appealed to the public on an emotional and logical level and helped to ensure that they

The United States was going to send the first people to orbit of the Earth. But first, needed to find men having the courage to go to the unknown. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, worked tediously on certain standards an astronaut would have to pass. NASA created many physical and mental tests to determine who would be eligible for space exploration. As told, “by late January 1959, a list of 324 eligible men had developed.” Of those three hundred twenty-four candidates, seven were selected to go to space. Gus Grissim, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Gordo Cooper, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter, and James Lovell would soon become known as the Original Seven. Likewise, during the course of this event, the Soviet Union Space Program began working on a new rocket called Lunik 1. Yet, unlike the plans for Sputnik 1 and 2, Soviet Russia had much bigger and creative plans for Lunik 1 to attempt a milestone in history. Instead of having Lunik 1 orbit the Earth, the Soviet Space Program aimed for reaching the moon. Although this was the original plan, the launch did not go as hoped for. Lunik 1 had missed the moon by a few thousand miles. But, as inaccurately assumed, did not seem to be a complete loss for the Soviet Union. For example, “but it missed by 3,728 miles (Schefter, 78). The mission was not a failure, though, because Lunik was able to surpass the distances of all previous satellites and truly enter into space." Once again, the Soviet Union was able to take another step ahead into the Space Race. In addition to the victory of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Space Program was prepared to send the first man into space before the United States. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Space Program launched Yuri Gagarin into the orbit of Earth. Yuri became known as a cosmonaut, more or less translated to the “sailor of the universe.” Because science was not yet advanced

Shepard Jr. is the first American man to be launched into space. He was in the Mercury space capsule in a 15 minute suborbital mission (meaning it reaches the atmosphere and falls back on Earth). John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962. After Project Mercury, Project Gemini started. Gemini 4's, Edward H. White Jr. conducted the first spacewalk (when an astronaut get’s out the space vehicle). Project Apollo began to be NASA’S priority in May 25, 1951. President John F. Kennedy announced the plan of launching a man in space to land on the Moon. He used this as a tool to subtly announce the US’s superiority of the Cold War enemies. It took 11 years to carry out. It took $25.4 billion dollars to achieve. This withstood challenges including lives of Roger B. Chaffee, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Edward H. White Jr. Jr. after a fire that took place in the Apollo capsule (January 27, 1967). October 1968 they launched different Apollo missions such as Apollo 7 (orbit earth) and Apollo 8 (orbit moon). July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong steps foot on the Moon after Apollo 11 landed with Edwin E. Buzz Aldrin Jr. Michael Collins remained in the capsule. Apollo 13 almost launched however the oxygen tank exploded. Harrison H. Jack Schmitt was a geologist that was chosen to become an astronaut. NASA and the Soviet Union allied to make the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). It served testing purposes and the crew launched separately,

Wow, can you believe it has almost been 50 years since the Space Race. It is just unbelievable, and we still travel to space today. One of the traffic accomplishments we did, was that we were the first to land a man on the moon. It sparked an uprising, and gave our nation great pride. But, in the end, it's thanks to the chivalrous astronauts, the perilous mission, and their legacy, that we succeeded.

After the Cold War, The United States and the Soviet Union we’re still in competition. Instead of competing in war, they competed head-to-head in the race to the moon. Tom Wolfe wrote a nonfiction book about the stories of the test pilots and their struggle to become astronauts. During the “space race” there were major advances in technology that we continue to use and improve to this day. Wolf had many different viewpoints on the technology in the 1960’s and how it was affecting our lives then and how it would affect our lives now.

The Right Stuff was written by Tom Wolfe in the wake of the Cold War. The Right Stuff is about test pilots that are chosen to be put on top of a roman candle and lit to be blasted off into space. Project Mercury was the mission that put men into orbit and the project that was trying to stay ahead of the Communist. This book is a testament to their courage in the face of death. The theme is that men will face danger again and again in the name of their country. This non-fiction was intended to inform the reader of the brave pilots and their wives that had to watch dead men walking. Tom Wolfe accomplished that goal through a very real tone and, the literary devices were used appropriately. Also he had the characters and the situations/problems to convey his ideas and themes. Tom Wolfe was methodical about who and where he got his information from so his book would be correct to what actually happened. From my reading point of view Tom Wolfe did outstanding work. All of his components of writing compounded into one non-fiction book The Right Stuff.

On August 27th 1948, Ronald Reagan announced that NASA would send a teacher into space. “Directing NASA to begin a search in all of our elementary and secondary schools and to choose, as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program, one of America’s finest—a teacher.” In that way, Reagan said, “All of America will be reminded of the crucial role

In Russia, Yuri Gagarin was chosen to be the first man in space. He would go in the rocket Vostok 1. On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 was launched, Everything went successfully when he was launched into space and orbiting the Earth until he was ready to come back. The cables that were connected to the rocket were supposed to detach but they did not. He was spinning like crazy until they burned off from Earth’s orbit and he came back fine. In the U.S., Alan Shepard on the Freedom 7 successfully went into space and nothing went wrong. About a month later, John F . Kennedy was elected. He announced plans to go to the moon and Project Gemini was established. In the USSR Korolev launched Vostok 2 with Gherman Titov in it. He was in space for 25 hours and the first to take photos in space. He suffered from space adaptation syndrome and had to abort the mission. On his way down he almost hit a train but he did not and made it back safely. In the U.S. in 1962, John Glenn was put in space for 5 hours and made it down fine. Russia put a woman in space to prove equality between men and women. Soon, U.S. put Luna 9 on the moon, the first time on the moon. Suddenly, Korolev suffered a heart attack and died so his identity was

Many of the scientific breakthroughs went unnoticed by the general population, until the space race. The space race started in the late nineteen-fifties when “the Soviet Union launched the first man-made object to orbit the earth, the Sputnik satellite”(ndcie). America jumped into action creating NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA starts the Mercury project to take the first American to space. But, once again the “Soviet Union beat them to it in 1961 put the first men in space, beating the U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard by one month”(dhc). NASA did not give up the continued with the acceleration of American space program, they launched the first orbital mercury flight. Earlier in the next year John Glenn was the first American astronaut to go into orbit, he circles the earth three times for a total of five hours. He was the first still-photographer in space, taking thirty-eight frames of Kodacolor negative film. While the Mercury project was still in full effect NASA picked nine astronauts for the new project called Gemini, which would expand the space corps to sixteen members. A few months into project Gemini and it was proving ground for strategies and techniques required for space travel; and Gordon Cooper concluded the missions of Mercury

Commander Dick Scobee was on his second flight to space. His first flight was with Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984, where he was the pilot. (Greene, 2017). Pilot, Michael Smith was on his first mission to space. He was also scheduled to pilot another mission later in 1986. (NASA, 2003) Mission Specialist, Ellison Onizuka, was on his second mission to space. He first served as a payload specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985. (NASA, 2007) Mission Specialist, Ronald McNair, was on his second flight to space. His first mission was as a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984. (NASA, 2003) Mission Specialist, Judy Resnik, was on her second mission to space. She was a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1984. (NASA, 2003) Payload Specialist, Gregory Jarvis, was also on his first flight to space. Teacher in Space Participant, Sharon “Christa” McAuliffe, was a school teacher that had been selected by NASA to participate in the Teacher in Space program with the intent on reviving the interest of space travel in children across the United States. This was set to be her first mission. (NASA, 2007) The entire crew lost their lives during the shuttle accident

October 1, 1958 marks the day NASA officially begins. As depicted in my first image, you can see former president Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizing Mr.Glennan to become the first administrator for NASA. As you’d probably guessed, the amount of curiosity portrayed by our humanistic nature is what enabled this to happen. Followed by May 5, 1961, the first American to enter space for a total of 15 minutes. This happened to be a major accomplishment during that time. Moving on to our more recent time period, you can view regular updates about the ISS nearly every day. Consequently, it is one of our greatest creations involving space exploration. Not to mention the detailed descriptions we are now able to give of our solar system. For example, the

NASA spent a huge amount of money to send a rocket into space over an eight-year time frame. This project was designed to send a scientist to space for research. After eight years of work and $52 Billion the rocket was ready to launch and three important astronauts were on board. The astronauts were prepared for a range of experiments to investigate life in space and the production of gases in various locations. Countdown begins. Finally the rocket left the earth and everyone at the Control Centre breathed a sigh of relief and cheered the opening stage of the