In the late 1950s and 1960s, the United States committed to a national effort to explore space. The space program's timing and sense of urgency were directly linked to the Soviet Union's early space achievements, but Cold War considerations failed to account for most Americans' enthusiasm for space exploration. Manned space flight, and particularly the goal of landing a man on the moon, captured Americans' imaginations. Space exploration was an extension of tiihe nation's frontier heritage, with the same economic, political, and social benefits of past American frontiers.
NASA incorporated frontier language into its discussions of the American space program, targeting presidents, the Congress, and the general public. Just as the majority of Americans connected the frontier past to the nation's character, NASA's leadership believed that the frontier had molded the nation's identity, making the United States unique within the world. This belief permeated the agency's discussions of its mission. Administrators introduced a version of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis to describe the benefits of the new space "frontier" and employed popular frontier images to make the space program more exciting for their audience. Presidents, the Congress, and the majority of American citizens agreed with the agency's perceptions of the frontier's importance in United States history and were convinced that space was the nation's new frontier. Despite growing opposition to space budgets by the late 1960s and 1970s, most Americans still accepted NASA's view of America's frontier legacy and its connections to space.
The Cold War provided a nurturing environment for the American space program in the 1950s and 1960s, but United States' competition with the Soviet Union cannot fully explain why Americans chose to explore space. The nation faced many challenges during this time period, not only from the Soviet Union but also as a result of domestic changes, such as the Civil Rights and the Women's Movements. In many respects, Americans faced an identity crisis. Americans in the 1950s and 1960s looked to the space frontier as the solution to their problems.