diff --git a/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cecde0d3a Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ef690a30 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,168 @@ +--- +title: John F. Kennedy Address at Rice University on the Space Effort +published: 2024-07-28 +description: The great speech that inspired thousands of minds for Space Exploration on Sept. 12, 1962 +image: './cover.png' +tags: [Ethics] +category: Theory +draft: false +--- + + + +President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb. Mr. +Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen: + +I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture +will be very brief. I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. + +We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in +need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both +knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. + +Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite +the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times +that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished +still far out-strip our collective comprehension. + +No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded +history in a time span of but a half century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, +except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, +under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only 5 years ago man learned to +write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than 2 years ago. The printing press came this year, and then +less than 2 months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of +power. + +Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became +available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new +spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight. + +This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new +problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward. + +So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of +Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished +to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward-and so will space. + +William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions +are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage. + +If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is +determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one +of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay +behind in this race for space. + +Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first +waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the +backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it - we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look +into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag +of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass +destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. + +Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. +In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as +well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and +to become the world's leading space-faring nation. + +We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won +and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience +of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a +position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of +war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go +unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding +the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours. + +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, and the others, too. + +It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as +among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the Office of the Presidency. + +In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's +history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times +as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their +accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight +engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new +building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two +lengths of this field. + +Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United +States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than +those of the Soviet Union. + +The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The +accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the +40-yard lines. + +Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented +warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs. + +We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public. + +To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and +in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. + +The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new +techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well +as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains. + +And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, +and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled +personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest +outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, +your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering +community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of +scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to +invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 +billion from this Center in this City. + +To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was in January +1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous 8 years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million +a year-a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will +soon rise some more from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in +the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority even though 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, reentering 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. + +I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. + +However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to +waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done +while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the terms of office of +some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this +decade. + +I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of +the United States of America. + +Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to +climb it. He said, "Because it is there." + +Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge +and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and +greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. + +Thank you. + +NOTE: The President spoke in the Rice University Stadium at 10 a.m. + +In his opening words he referred to Dr. K. S. Pitzer, President of the University, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, +Governor Price Daniel of Texas, Representative Albert Thomas of Texas, Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, +Representative George P. Miller of California, James E. Webb, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space +Administration., David E. Bell, Director of the Bureau of the Budget. + +Source: [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, v. 1, 1962, pp. 669-670](https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PPP-1962-book1).