#TBT: Kennedy Shoots For The Moon

 

     On September 12th, 1962, John F. Kennedy gave his famous address before Rice University, in which he declared, "We choose to go to the Moon... not because they are easy, but because they are hard." On May 25th, 1961, Kennedy had previously stated his goal, before Congress, of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the decade is out." 

     Much of Kennedy's presidency dealt with U.S.-Soviet relations, from the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the Peace Corps to the Nuclear Missile Crisis, and, ultimately, his assassination in 1963. Kennedy's vision of a lunar mission was in response to the perception that the United States was losing the Space Race to Russia's Sputnik program, which had seen cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbit the Earth in April 1961. Although Kennedy had been opposed to the space program as a senator, he became an advocate of manned spaceflight during his administration to ensure American morale and national security.

     Ultimately, the goal would be achieved in July 1969, nearly six years after Kennedy's death, and would be seen as a major victory for astronomy, science is a whole, and human morale and horizons in general. Kennedy's role in the space program would match his youthful charisma in inspiring Americans with the belief in the possibilities of the future.