The Anniversary

Here is an excerpt from President John Kennedy's May 25, 1961 speech delivered before a joint session of Congress. Take a look at the entire speech after reading this and you will see the theme was the continual battle with the Soviet Union for military dominance. The space program was just one small part of this strategy.

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.

For the full text of the speech, click here.

Peaceful Space Programs?

The United States has moved anti-missile systems to Hawaii to ward off stray North Korean missiles, while the North Korean leader continues to claim that they are part of a peaceful space mission. Is there such a thing today? And was there ever?

In the Wall Street Journal review of Craig Nelson's book Rocket Men (see below), we read of a quote by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson stating, "Control of space means control of the world. From space the masters of infinity would have the power to control the Earth's weather, to cause droughts and floods, to change the tides and raise the level of the sea, divert the Gulf stream and change the temperature to frigid." And we think North Korea is a little bit crazy? The Vice President sounds like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. Maybe you remember this bit:

Shit. Oh hell, let's just do what we always do. Hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage. Yeah? Good! Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that a breakaway Russian Republic called Kreplachistan will be transferring a nuclear warhead to the United Nations in a few days. Here's the plan. We get the warhead and we hold the world ransom for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

40 Years Later - Rocket Men

I guess I should not be surprised with the number of books out there on the 40th anniversary of our landing a man on the Moon. Its a feat yet to be equaled by any other nation, and certainly a high point to a decade that saw the assassination of President, as well as his brother, the shooting of Martin Luther King, and the slow erosion of American influence as we slogged through Vietnam. But what a way to exit the 1960s!

One of these books is Craig Nelson's Rocket Men. His story about Apollo 11 is getting some great reviews. Here is how Fred Bortz describes it in The Dallas Morning News:

The book is divided into three parts. Part I introduces the astronauts, their families and the Apollo launch and mission control teams. Part II presents a distinctive view of NASA’s evolution from its origin to the day of that momentous launch. Part III picks up after Apollo 11’s liftoff and continues to the moon and beyond. It closes with a poignant and thought-provoking discussion of the biggest question faced by the astronauts and agency alike: What do you do after you’ve been to the moon?

Nelson faced his own daunting mission in telling the Apollo story in a fresh way. He rises to the occasion with meticulous research, skillful storytelling rich in detail and a narrative as stimulating and disciplined as Apollo 11’s trajectory through space and history.

For example, the book’s lengthy but exquisitely controlled opening sentence puts readers on the scene on May 20, 1969, as the 30-story-tall Saturn V rocket “was painstakingly trundled five miles across the raging heat and searing green of central Florida’s eastern coast by an eleven-man Kennedy Space Center crew aboard the world’s largest land vehicle, a six-million-pound, tank-wheeled crawler out of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building, itself so massive that … clouds would form under its 525-foot ceiling … and it would rain.”

To introduce Part II, Nelson writes: “The standard version of the history of NASA has always been that, alarmed and deflated by Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, the United States created a wholly civilian agency that, through the vital legacy of its youngest president, won the space race ‘in peace for all mankind.’ Besides the fact that almost all these assertions are either misleading or expressly false … [t]he actual story is much richer and the achievements more profound.”

Part III is full of heart-pounding detail that reaches its peak as Armstrong searches for a boulder-free area when unknown lunar mass concentrations cause Eagle to overshoot its planned landing spot. Nelson begins by putting the oral history in context. “From a height of two thousand feet while traveling twenty feet per second, Armstrong tried to orient himself to the landscape below from his studies of the Apollo 10 photographs, but Eagle was now too low to the ground, and too far off-course,” he writes. Then he leaves the rest of the story to flight director Gene Kranz, Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong and Armstrong’s wife, Jan.

Whether or not we need to go back to the Moon is its own question, but the fact that we made it there at all is a marvel and a turning point in human history.

Who Wants to Go to the Moon?

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Michio Kaku discusses the race for the Moon and how China, Japan and India all have plans to land on the surface of the Moon sometime around 2020. Not to be outdone, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans a manned mission to Mars in 2030 called the Aurora Program. (Note: The ESA's own site is calling for an "international human mission" to Mars by 2025, so it seems ESA does not plan to go on its own). Even so, Mr. Kaku seems to be worried about a "traffic jam" on the surface of the Moon. An interesting idea (and less worrisome than an explosion that pushes the Moon away from Earth ala Space 1999).

Mr. Kaku also calls a trip the Moon "symbolic," citing its lack of military value, lack of air and water, and expensive-to-retrieve minerals. Finally, he worries about the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, wondering if it is up to the task when all these visits start of occur. Here are the basics:

1. the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;
2. outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;
3. outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;
4. States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;
5. the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes;
6. astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;
7. States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental activities;
8. States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and
9. States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

It still seems pretty relevant today, but maybe a recommitment to these principles might make sense just to make sure everyone has read the fine print. Overall, a new space race is not such a bad idea if it stimulates new approaches and technologies that can advance mankind in the Heavens and here on Earth.

Phobos or Bust?

The New York Times had an interesting interview with Buzz Aldrin in its Sunday magazine. Asked about a return to the Moon, Aldrin thought we should be aiming higher. For instance, the Russians are planning a trip to Phobos, one of Mars' "moons," as a stepping stone to the Martian surface. Aldrin noted "Russia perhaps is still entertaining the possibility that the moons of Mars might have access to ice or water." An interesting approach. Aldrin would rather send robots to the Moon and men to Mars, which is the very reverse of the current American plans. Maybe he is onto something.