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plutherusApollo 11 landed 40 years ago tomorrow.
John F. Kennedy said that in a speech in Rice Stadium on September 12th, 1962.
Seven years later, two men were walking on the moon.
That's the most famous part of the speech, though I think my favorite is later. The benefits of the Apollo program are legion, and have been enumerated far better than I can do here. And they knew there would be benefits, even if they did not know exactly what they would be:
Sometimes I'm sad to think that we used to be the kind of nation that could put a man on the moon.
Other times, though, I find it inspiring.
After all, as Walt Disney once pointed out, we did it before, and we can do it again.
Tomorrow, the three Apollo 11 astronauts are talking to Obama. They want to make the case for Mars.
I hope he listens.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
John F. Kennedy said that in a speech in Rice Stadium on September 12th, 1962.
Seven years later, two men were walking on the moon.
That's the most famous part of the speech, though I think my favorite is later. The benefits of the Apollo program are legion, and have been enumerated far better than I can do here. And they knew there would be benefits, even if they did not know exactly what they would be:
I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.
Sometimes I'm sad to think that we used to be the kind of nation that could put a man on the moon.
Other times, though, I find it inspiring.
After all, as Walt Disney once pointed out, we did it before, and we can do it again.
Tomorrow, the three Apollo 11 astronauts are talking to Obama. They want to make the case for Mars.
I hope he listens.
