ABSTRACT
As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin began the final stages of descent to the moon their lunar module was controlled by the on-board Apollo Guidance Computer. Eisenhower was no enthusiast for the space programme. He never approved any plans for a manned expedition to the moon. The rocket technology which powered men to the moon was essentially backward looking and produced little in terms of wider benefits. But Apollo’s computer guidance systems and its spin offs greatly accelerated American skills in the knowledge and information economy. At the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion Kennedy called in Lyndon Johnson as Vice President and Head of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. Thus the Americans acquired German technology with German minds and a German goal, and Von Braun could reignite his youthful dream of interplanetary travel. The President had said that the nation would put a man on the moon and bring him back, and it had done so.
