Read the excerpts from Team Moon and the NASA article. Kennedy's decision was triggered by an intense "space race" with the old Soviet Union. The Soviets were first in space (with Sputnik); first too with a man in space. July 1969. It's a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out. A reader can best combine the information in the excerpts to