"Why go to the moon?" - John F. Kennedy at Rice University

and now ladies and gentlemen the president of the united states president pizza mr. vice president governor congressman thomas senator wiley and congressman miller mr. Webb Val scientists, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am grateful that your president has named me an honorary visiting professor and I assure you that my first lecture will be very brief. I am delighted to be here and particularly delighted to be here on this occasion when we meet in a

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noted for its knowledge in a city we notice progress in a state noted for its strength and we need all three when we meet in an hour of change and challenge in a decade of hope and fear in an era of Both knowledge and ignorance the more our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance develops despite the surprising fact that most of the scientists the world has ever known are alive and working today even though this nation's own scientific workforce is doubling every 12 years at a growth rate more than three times that of our population as a whole, even though the vast expanses of the unknown , the unanswered and the unfinished still far exceed our collective understanding, no man can fully comprehend how far and how quickly we have come, but condense it if See the 50,000 years of man's history recorded in a span of just half a century expressed in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except that by the end of them advanced man had learned to use animal skins for cover. then about 10 years pass under this standard man came out of his caves to build other types of Sheldon only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels Christianity began less than two years ago the printing press arrived this year and then less More than two months ago during this entire 50-year span of human history the steam engine provided a new source of energy Newton explored the meaning of gravity last lunch electric lights, telephones, automobiles and airplanes were available only last week we developed penicillin and television and nuclear energy and now, if the new American spacecraft manages to reach Venus, we will literally have reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is an impressive rhythm and that rhythm cannot help but create new regrets as it dispels the old new ignorance, new problems, new dangers, surely the open views of space promise high costs and difficulties as well as great rewards, so It's not surprising that some make us stay where we are a little longer to rest and wait, but this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States. It was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look back this country was conquered by those who advance and so will space William Bradford speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony said that all great actions and honorable are accompanied with great difficulty and both must be enterprising and overcome with responsible courage.

If this capsule story of our progress teaches us anything it is that man and his quest for knowledge and progress are determined and cannot be deterred. Space exploration will continue if we unite. in it or not and it is one of the great adventures of all time and no nation that hopes to be a leader of other nations can expect to be left behind in this race for space. Those who came before us made sure this country was first. The waves of the Industrial Revolution, the first waves of modern inventions and the first wave of nuclear energy, and this generation has no intention of drowning in the undertow of the next space age, we want to be a part of it, we want to lead it through the future.

The eyes of the world now look to space, to the Moon and to the planets beyond, and we have promised that we will not see it governed by a hostile banner of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace that we evolved and that we will not see space filled . with weapons of mass destruction but with instruments of knowledge and understanding, however, the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled if we in this nation are the first and, therefore, we aim to be the first, in short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security.

Our obligations to ourselves and to others require that we make this effort to solve these mysteries, solve them for the good of all men, and become the world's leading spacefaring nation. We set sail in this new sea because there are new knowledge to learn. New rights must be earned and earned and must be earned and used for the progress of all people for space science like nuclear science and all technology has no consciousness of its own, whether it will become a force for good or evil depends on the man and alone If the United States is in a position of preeminence, can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of ​​peace or a terrifying new theater of war?

I am not saying that we should or will be left unprotected against the hostile misuse of space, any more than we are unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I am saying that space can be explored and dominated without fueling the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man makes and extending his mandate around this globe of ours, there are no conflicts, no national conflict in outer space so far its dangers are hostile to all of us its conquest deserves the best of all the humanity and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never appear again, but why some say the

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why choose this as our goal and may well ask why climb the highest mountain why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic by what Rice plays Texas we choose to go to the

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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 difficult because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and abilities because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one that we are not willing to postpone, and one that we intend to win and so do others.

It is for these reasons that I consider last year's decision to shift our efforts in the space from low to high speed as one of the most important decisions that will be made during my tenure in the office of the presidency in the last 24 hours that we have seen. Facilities are being created for the largest and most complex exploration in human history. We have felt the earth shake and the air shattered by the test of a Saturn C1 booster rocket many times more powerful than the Atlas launched by John Glamour, generating energy equivalent to 10,000 cars. With its accelerator on the floor, we have seen the site where five F1 rocket engines, each as powerful as the eight engines of the Saturn combine, will be grouped to make the advanced Saturn missile assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as As tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

In the last 19 months, at least 45 satellites have circled the Earth. About 40 of them were manufactured in the United States of America and were far away. more sophisticated and provided much more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union the Mariner spacecraft the Meredith spacecraft now en route to Venus is the most complex instrument in the history of space science the accuracy of that shot is comparable to fire a missile from Cape Canaveral and launch it in this stadium between the 40 yard lines transit satellites are helping our ships at sea take a safer course the Tyrus satellites have given us unprecedented warnings about hurricanes and storms and they will do the same with the forest fires and icebergs that we have had there yet, but also from others, even if they do not admit them and they may be less public to be sure, they will be sure that we are behind and will be behind for some time in human flight, but we do not intend to be left behind and in this decade we will recover and advance, the growth of our science and education will be enriched with new knowledge of our universe and environment, through new learning techniques, cartography and observation, through new tools and computers to The medical industry as a whole, as well as technical school institutions like Rice, will reap the fruits of these games and, ultimately, the space effort itself, although still in its infancy, has already created a large number of new companies and tens and thousands of new jobs. and related industries are generating new demands for investment and skilled personnel and this city, this state and this region will largely share in this growth.

What was once the farthest outpost on the old Western frontier will be the farthest outpost on the new Western frontier. science and space Houston your city of Houston with its manned spacecraft center will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community over the next five years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area to increase its outlays in salaries and expenses up to sixty million dollars a year to invest about $200 million in laboratory plans and facilities and to direct or contract new space efforts more than one billion dollars of this Center in this city To be sure, all of this costs us all a fair amount of money: this year's space budget is three times larger than it was in January 1961 and is larger than the space budget of the previous eight years combined;

That budget now amounts to $5.4 billion a year, an astonishing but somewhat smaller sum. of what we pay each year for cigarettes and cigars space costs Space costs will soon increase in Samoa from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents per week for every man, woman and child in the United States, because we have given this program a high national priority, although I realized that this is to some extent an act of faith and vision because now we do not know what benefits await us, but if I told my fellow citizens that we will send to the moon 240,000 miles away from the control. station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall across this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of withstanding various heat and stresses times more than has ever been experienced, assembled with better precision. than the best watch that carries all the equipment necessary for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival on an untested mission to an unknown celestial body and then returns it safely to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of more than 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half. that the temperature of the sun is almost as high as it is here today and to do all this and do all this and do it right and do it first before the dictators come out, then we must be bold, I am the one who is doing all the work.

So we get points for keeping calm for a minute. However, I believe that we are going to do it and I believe that we must pay what we have to pay. I don't think we should waste money, but I think we should. work and this will be done in the 6's, it can be done while some of you are still here in the school of this college and

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, it will be done during the terms of some of the people who sit here on this platform, but it will be will and will be done before the end of this decade and I am delighted that this university is playing a role in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America for many years.

A while ago, the great British explorer George Mallory, who was going to die on Mount Everest, was asked why he wanted to climb it and he said because it's there, well, space is there and we're going to climb it and the moon and the planets are there. there and The new hopes of knowledge and peace serve and therefore as we set sail we ask God's blessing upon the most dangerous, dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever embarked on. Thank you, please, stand, God of all space, who has set the stars in their courses and who also dwells in the human heart god of infinite light years beyond infinity who also gives meaning to our short years by return for your blessing we thank you oh God for the rights with which you have endowed us for the freedoms that we Americans have secured, appreciated and shared for the love of truth and the dreams of adventure that drive pioneers into space.

We are grateful for the lofty vision of our president, for the intelligence and eloquence that give wings to his words, guide him and protect him, oh father. and to all who have been entrusted with the destiny of this great nation may your blessing rest upon us all in our homes in our schools inMay our laboratories, our farms, our factories, our space capsules, prosper us in our cities and our states, make our country a worthy leader of the free world and grant the blessings of peace to the entire army of humanity.