Editing Apollo 11 (section)

=== Cultural significance ===
{{main|Apollo 11 in popular culture}}
[[File:Land on the Moon 7 21 1969-repair.jpg|thumb|A girl holding ''[[The Washington Post]]'' newspaper stating "'The Eagle Has Landed' – Two Men Walk on the Moon"]]
Humans walking on the Moon and returning safely to Earth accomplished Kennedy's goal set eight years earlier. In Mission Control during the Apollo 11 landing, Kennedy's speech flashed on the screen, followed by the words "TASK ACCOMPLISHED, July 1969".<ref name="Launius" /> The success of Apollo 11 demonstrated the United States' technological superiority;<ref name="Launius">{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/Apollomon/Apollo.html|last1=Launius|first1=Roger D.|access-date=July 19, 2023|title= Project Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126101051/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/Apollo.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and with the success of Apollo 11, America had won the [[Space Race]].{{sfn|Chaikin|2007|page=57}}{{sfn|Schefter|1999|p=288}}

New phrases permeated into the English language. "If they can send a man to the Moon, why can't they&nbsp;...?" became a common saying following Apollo 11.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Washington Post |title=We Put a Man on the Moon, So Why Can't We ...? |first1=David |last1=Beard |first2=Nick |last2=Kirkpatrick |date=July 17, 2014 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/17/we-put-a-man-on-the-moon-so-why-cant-we/?noredirect=on |access-date=January 4, 2018 |archive-date=June 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626111712/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/17/we-put-a-man-on-the-moon-so-why-cant-we/?noredirect=on |url-status=live }}</ref> Armstrong's words on the lunar surface also spun off various parodies.{{sfn|Chaikin|2007|page=57}}

While most people celebrated the accomplishment, disenfranchised Americans saw it as a symbol of the divide in America, evidenced by protesters led by [[Ralph Abernathy]] outside of Kennedy Space Center the day before Apollo 11 launched.{{sfn|Schefter|1999|p=283}} NASA Administrator [[Thomas O. Paine|Thomas Paine]] met with Abernathy at the occasion, both hoping that the space program can spur progress also in other regards, such as poverty in the US.<ref name="Niiler 2019"/> Paine was then asked, and agreed, to host protesters as spectators at the launch,<ref name="Niiler 2019"/> and Abernathy, awestruck by the spectacle,{{sfn|Brooks|Grimwood|Swenson|1979|p=338}} prayed for the astronauts.<ref name="Niiler 2019">{{cite web | last=Niiler | first=Eric | title=Why Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon Landing | website=HISTORY | date=July 11, 2019 | url=https://www.history.com/.amp/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-protests | access-date=November 10, 2021}}</ref> Racial and financial inequalities frustrated citizens who wondered why money spent on the Apollo program was not spent taking care of humans on Earth. A poem by [[Gil Scott-Heron]] called "[[Whitey on the Moon]]" (1970) illustrated the [[racial inequality in the United States]] that was highlighted by the Space Race.{{sfn|Chaikin|2007|p=57}}<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/gil-scott-herons-poem-whitey-on-the-moon/239622/|title=Gil Scott-Heron's Poem, 'Whitey on the Moon'|last1=Madrigal|first1=Alexis C.|date=May 28, 2011|access-date=January 3, 2019|magazine=The Atlantic|archive-date=February 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216114355/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/gil-scott-herons-poem-whitey-on-the-moon/239622/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="whitey">{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthis-chiroux/whitey-on-the-moon-again_b_1188220.html|title=Whitey on the Moon, Again?|date=March 11, 2012|last1=Chiroux|first1=Matthis|publisher=[[Huffington Post]] |access-date=January 3, 2019|archive-date=November 5, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105091157/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthis-chiroux/whitey-on-the-moon-again_b_1188220.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The poem starts with:

{{Poemquote|A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be paying still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)
[...]<ref name="whitey" />}}

Twenty percent of the world's population watched humans walk on the Moon for the first time.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |title=The Apollo 11 Mission Was Also a Global Media Sensation |first=Tiffany |last=Hsu  |date=July 15, 2019 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html |access-date=July 20, 2023}}</ref> While Apollo 11 sparked the interest of the world, the follow-on Apollo missions did not hold the interest of the nation.<ref name="Launius" /> One possible explanation was the shift in complexity. Landing someone on the Moon was an easy goal to understand; lunar geology was too abstract for the average person. Another is that Kennedy's goal of landing humans on the Moon had already been accomplished.{{sfn|Chaikin|2007|p=58}} A well-defined objective helped Project Apollo accomplish its goal, but after it was completed it was hard to justify continuing the lunar missions.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/ch14-7.html|title=Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions|journal=NASA Special Publication|volume=494|pages=420|last1=Compton|first1=William David|bibcode=1989NASSP.494..420C|year=1989|access-date=January 4, 2019|archive-date=June 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626193736/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/ch14-7.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/apollo-11|title=Apollo 11|publisher=History|date=August 23, 2018|access-date=January 3, 2019|archive-date=January 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104133330/https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/apollo-11|url-status=live}}</ref>

While most Americans were proud of their nation's achievements in space exploration, only once during the late 1960s did the [[Gallup Poll]] indicate that a majority of Americans favored "doing more" in space as opposed to "doing less". By 1973, 59 percent of those polled favored cutting spending on space exploration. The Space Race had been won, and Cold War tensions were easing as the US and Soviet Union entered the era of [[détente]]. This was also a time when inflation was rising, which put pressure on the government to reduce spending. What saved the space program was that it was one of the few government programs that had achieved something great. Drastic cuts, warned [[Caspar Weinberger]], the deputy director of the [[Office of Management and Budget]], might send a signal that "our best years are behind us".{{sfn|McCurdy|1997|pp=106–107}}

After the Apollo 11 mission, officials from the Soviet Union said landing humans on the Moon was dangerous and unnecessary. At the time the Soviet Union was attempting to retrieve lunar samples robotically. The Soviets publicly denied there was a race to the Moon, and indicated they were not making an attempt.{{sfn|Chaikin|1994|p=631}} [[Mstislav Keldysh]] said in July 1969, "We are concentrating wholly on the creation of large satellite systems." It was revealed in 1989 that the Soviets had tried to send people to the Moon, but were unable due to technological difficulties.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/18/us/russians-finally-admit-they-lost-race-to-moon.html|title=Russians Finally Admit They Lost Race to Moon|last1=Wilford|first1=John Noble|date=December 18, 1989|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 8, 2019|archive-date=November 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113113539/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/18/us/russians-finally-admit-they-lost-race-to-moon.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The public's reaction in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/|title=The Moon Landing through Soviet Eyes: A Q&A with Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev|magazine=Scientific American|date=July 16, 2009|access-date=January 7, 2019|last1=Das|first1=Saswato R.|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225085952/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Apollo 11 landing is referenced in the songs "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" by [[the Byrds]] on the 1969 album ''[[Ballad of Easy Rider (album)|Ballad of Easy Rider]]'', "Coon on the Moon" by [[Howlin' Wolf]] on the 1973 album ''[[The Back Door Wolf]]'', and "[[Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer#One Small Step|One Small Step]]" by [[Ayreon]] on the 2000 album ''[[Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer]]''.