Was the attempt to put the first man on the Moon an ambitious achievement in science or a waste of government resources? In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared a commitment to landing an American on the Moon by the end of the century (Gitlin). During the 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States began a massive space race. The Soviet Union had launched Sputnik into orbit on October 4, 1957 and later launched another, heavier, Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957 with a dog named Laika on board. During the height of the Cold War, the United States was stunned by these incredible achievements due to the brief recovery from World War II and feared that the United States had fallen back on the advancement of technology. With the United States starting behind, they finally launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. Without an official space program, President Eisenhower signed a law on July 29, 1958 establishing NASA, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President John F. Kennedy was later elected on November 8, 1960. (Watson). Although the space race between the United States and Russia improved technology, the attempt to land the first man on the Moon was a waste of government resources due to the waste of billions of dollars and the lack of public will to land a human being on the Moon. , and showed no dominance. The attempt to put the first man on the Moon was a waste of government resources due to the large amounts of money used, putting the country even further into debt. After the United States emerged from World War I and World War II, we were approximately $257 trillion in debt (“The Space Race and the Cold War”). As the United States entered deeper into the Cold War, the debt mounted. The Apollo program alone, costing more than twenty... half the paper... could not demonstrate their overall dominance. The attempt to land the first man on the moon did not demonstrate overall dominance and was a waste of government resources. The space race between the USA and the USSR was a waste of government resources due to the waste of billions of dollars, there was no need for it by the public and it did not show the power of the countries. With the Apollo program and all the other satellites the United States spent billions of dollars that were poorly used. During the time of the space race, the public was not completely interested, they were only interested in the most exciting parts. The Moon landing did not demonstrate the dominance of the countries, it only demonstrated that the Moon landing was a waste of government resources. The need to land a man on the Moon was a waste of government resources and was entirely unnecessary in our history.