The Conquest of the Moon

In the past year, we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the American landing on the Moon, one of the greatest and most heroic achievements in the history of humanity. The discussion will retrace the various stages of the conquest of outer space, starting from the pioneers and visionaries of the early 20th century. We will revisit the extraordinary (albeit criminal) successes of Nazi scientists, leading up to the Cold War, which, driven by nuclear fear, 75 years ago sparked a titanic race between the USA and the USSR, bringing both misfortunes and unparalleled technological advancement. It was thus a war, the ‘mother of all things,’ that brought us peacefully (at least for now) to the Moon, conquered by the Yankees at the last moment after, as we will discuss, all intermediate battles were systematically won by the Soviets.