Sixty years ago today, with just 15 minutes of manned space flight under our belt (sub-orbital at that), President Kennedy set the nation's sights on the lunar landing goal.

In an special address on urgent national needs to a joint session of Congress on this day 60 years ago, JFK made his famous request to increase NASA's budget to cover the cost of a moon landing by the end of the decade.

This request came towards the end of his speech, but was not really a complete surprise to some. They knew he would address the issue of space in his speech.

There were many motivations for his moon landing goal; most of them political, some of the egotistical. JFK, like many presidents, was a flawed man too. But, his willingness to reach for such a far-flung goal is commendable. I'm sure he was hoping for a second term during which I'm sure he was hopeful the moon landing goal would be achieved. As we know now, that did not happen. A certain early Friday afternoon in Dallas, Texas would end that dream for him.

Still, 'going to the moon' in the 1960s surely helped define that decade, and greatly helped define the personal interests for many on this forum. I know it did for me as a child of the 1960s.

Here is a link to the portion of that speech that covered space. It is good to watch the entire piece and not just the "I believe this nation should commit itself...." portion (which is at 2:53 if you do want to listen to just the 'space' part).

Link: https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/ab...ess-may-25-1961

And it was 60 years ago today.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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Rocket-Brained Since 1970