The following
text is a paragraph (IX.) taken from a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs President John F. Kennedy Delivered in person before a joint session of Congress May 25, 1961 Listen to this excerpt by RealAudio stream or as an mp3 stream |
IX. SPACE
Finally,
if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the
world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements
in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear
to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the
impact of this
adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting
to make a determination of which road they
should take. Since
early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review.
With the advice of the Vice President, who
is Chairman of the
National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong
and where we are not, where we may
succeed and where we
may not. Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a
great new American enterprise--time for this
nation to take a
clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways
may hold the key to our future on earth.
I
believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary.
But the facts of the matter are that we have never made
the national
decisions or marshalled the national resources required for
such leadership. We have never specified long-range
goals on an urgent
time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to
insure their fulfillment.
Recognizing
the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket
engines, which gives them many months of
leadtime, and
recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead
for some time to come in still more impressive
successes, we
nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own. For
while we cannot guarantee that we shall one
day be first, we can
guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us
last. We take an additional risk by making it
in full view of the
world, but as shown by the feat of astronaut Shepard, this
very risk enhances our stature when we are
successful. But this
is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our
eagerness to share its meaning is not governed
by the efforts of
others. We go into space because whatever mankind must
undertake, free men must fully share.
I
therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I
have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the
funds which are
needed to meet the following national goals:
First,
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving
the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on
the moon and
returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in
this period will be more impressive to mankind, or
more important for
the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so
difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose
to accelerate the
development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose
to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel
boosters, much larger
than any now being developed, until certain which is superior.
We propose additional funds for other
engine development
and for unmanned explorations--explorations which are
particularly important for one purpose which this
nation will never
overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring
flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one
man going to the
moon--if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an
entire nation. For all of us must work to put him
there.
Secondly,
an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million
dollars already available, will accelerate development of
the Rover nuclear
rocket. This gives promise of some day providing a means for
even more exciting and ambitious
exploration of space,
perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar
system itself.
Third,
an additional 50 million dollars will make the most of our
present leadership, by accelerating the use of space
satellites for
world-wide communications.
Fourth,
an additional 75 million dollars--of which 53 million dollars
is for the Weather Bureau--will help give us at the
earliest possible
time a satellite system for world-wide weather observation.
Let
it be clear--and this is a judgment which the Members of the
Congress must finally make--let it be clear that I am
asking the Congress
and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of
action, a course which will last for
many years and carry
very heavy costs: 531 million dollars in fiscal '62--an
estimated seven to nine billion dollars additional
over the next five
years. If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in
the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be
better not to go at
all.
Now
this is a choice which this country must make, and I am
confident that under the leadership of the Space
Committees of the
Congress, and the Appropriating Committees, that you will
consider the matter carefully.
It
is a most important decision that we make as a nation. But all
of you have lived through the last four years and have
seen the significance
of space and the adventures in space, and no one can predict
with certainty what the ultimate
meaning will be of
mastery of space.
I
believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of
this country as well as the Members of the Congress
should consider the
matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have
given attention over many weeks and
months, because it is
a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring
that the United States take an
affirmative position
in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear
the burdens to make it successful. If we
are not, we should
decide today and this year.
This
decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and
technical manpower, materiel and facilities, and
the possibility of
their diversion from other important activities where they are
already thinly spread. It means a degree of
dedication,
organization and discipline which have not always
characterized our research and development efforts. It means
we cannot afford
undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent,
wasteful interagency rivalries, or a high turnover
of key personnel.
New
objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They
could in fact, aggravate them further--unless every
scientist, every
engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor, and
civil servant gives his personal pledge that this
nation will move
forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting
adventure of space.
Back to
Luna-City.com's Space Flight History