When NASA finally figired out that the moon orbits the earth and not other way around?

Question

was there cause for celebration because they suddinly realized they could land on the moon

Answer 1

there was never any confusion about that, as far as i know. ptolemy had that right, although he did think the sun circled the earth.

Answer 2

The Moon is about the only body in the entire universe for which the centre of its rotation was never in doubt. It was always thought to go around the Earth. NASA didn't figure that one out. In fact, the general layout of the solar system was well known and accepted hundreds of years before NASA came into being.

Answer 3

In fact, the Earth and Moon orbit about the same point. That point is the center of mass of the Earth-Moon system. The point is inside the Earth (because the Earth is much more massive than the Moon), but it is not at the center of the Earth.

It is an identical situation with any other pair of orbiting objects anywhere in the universe. Both objects orbit their collective center of mass.

Answer 4

America had not even been discovered when that was found out. So NASA had nothing to do with it. Did you know that most of the astronomy in the world is NOT done by NASA who are very good at space probes but not all that flash at telescopes?

Answer 5

humans knew that the moon orbited the earth far before NASA was formed