Man's first trip to the moon is about to blast off anew in an online recreation intended to enthrall an internet generation not yet born when the US mission made history 40 years ago.

A virtual re-enactment of the Apollo 11 mission that put men on the moon and brought them back safely will launch tomorrow online at wechoosethemoon.org and incorporate new-age communication tools such as email alerts and Twitter.

"President Barack Obama is seen as inspiring because he challenged people to do more than they envisioned themselves doing," said Tom McNaught, spokesman for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum which is behind the online project.

"We are saying there was a president in the 1960s who felt the same way. Our mission is to share that legacy with new generations."

Mr Kennedy in 1961 made the Nasa space programme a top national priority because he thought it critical to "beat the Russians to the moon," according to historians at the library.

The US was being left behind in the space race by what was then the communist Soviet Union, which had launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957 and put cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the earth in 1961.

"Landing on the moon before the Russians was an absolute priority," Mr McNaught said.

"The only way to beat the Russians in the space race was to land on the moon before they did. President Kennedy wanted to show the world that democracy as a form of government could keep up with communism, if not surpass it."

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