Apollo 11 insignia. At Scheer's suggestion, the CM was named "Columbia" after "Columbiad", the giant cannon that launched a spacecraft (also from Florida) in Jules Verne's 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon". It also referenced Columbia, a historical name of the United States. The astronaut had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of significance that they wanted to take with them on the mission. Five PPKs were carried on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on "Columbia" before launch, and two on "Eagle". Neil Armstrong's LM PPK contained a piece of wood from the
History of the United States (1964–1980) moon and returning him safely to the earth." The first manned flights produced by this effort came from Project Gemini (1965–1966) and then by the Apollo program, which despite the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew, achieved Kennedy's goal by landing the first astronauts on the Moon with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Having lost the race to the Moon, the Soviets shifted their attention to orbital space stations, launching the first (Salyut 1) in 1971. The U.S. responded with the Skylab orbital workstation, in use from 1973 through 1974. With détente, a time of relatively improved Cold