20 luglio 1969: il primo uomo sulla Luna. L’evento e le sue ricadute

Man’s landing on the moon was undoubtedly the most significant event of the sec-ond half of the 20th century (July 20, 1969), not only from the media point of view, but mainly from the scientific and technological points of view. While the newspapers focused on the last part of the event, that is on the Neil Arm-strong that sets his foot on the lunar surface, only some specialists have deepened what that extraordinary Mission has requested and imposed, in terms of preparation and engagement of thousands of men and women. This paper aims at providing a historical, scientific and technological framework for the lunar mission, referring to subsequent missions, too. The deep knowledge of what really happened is certainly interesting, but it is probably better that this item is personally accomplished. In its second part this paper reports some space activities that took their cue and push from those lunar Missions. It refers to two Missions: the SIR-C / X-SAR, that were conceived for the optimization of the use of radar in orbit, and the Cassini Mis-sion. The authors of this contribution were involved in both activities.