In 1961 John F Kennedy challenged America to put humans on the moon. That same year saw the Bay of Pigs invasion, leading into the Cuban missile crisis and an escalation in the Cold War with Russia. East Germany started to build the Berlin Wall and the American civil rights movements grew. Against this backdrop of localised conflict, existential nuclear threats and a broader focus on civil liberties, the space program was a ray of light. It would usher in the space age and define a generation.