The Decision to Go to the Moon
"I believe 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."
President John F. Kennedy, speech to U.S. Congress, May 25, 1961.President Kennedy's speech to Congress was made in the context of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. At that time, the U.S. feared that it was falling behind the U.S.S.R. both in technological advances and international prestige. The U.S.S.R. launched the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit in October 1957. On April 12, 1961, just six weeks before Kennedy's speech, the Soviets launched the first human into Earth orbit. Although the U.S. launched astronaut Alan Shepard on a brief, suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, they did not put an astronaut in orbit until February 1962. The failure of the U.S.-backed invasion of the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in April 1961 added to the gloomy mood. In this context, Kennedy sought an inspirational goal to rally the country. With the advice of Vice President Lyndon Johnson and the nation's scientific leadership, Kennedy settled on a manned lunar journey as a goal dramatic enough to capture the world's attention. The difficulty of reaching this goal ensured that it could not be achieved quickly, allowing the U.S. time to overcome the Soviet Union's lead in space exploration.
NASA quickly turned its programs toward reaching the Moon. Project Mercury, already under way at the time, provided the U.S. its first experience with humans in space. In 1965 and 1966, Project Gemini provided experience in three areas that were crucial to reaching the Moon: long-duration spaceflight, extravehicular activity, and rendezvous and docking of spacecraft. Unmanned programs also contributed. Project Ranger provided our first close-up images of the Moon. Project Surveyor provided images from the Moon's surface and analyses of the chemical composition and mechanical properties of the Moon's soil. Lunar Orbiter photographed the entire Moon from low altitude orbit, with particular emphasis on locating landing sites for the Apollo Program.
The tragic Apollo 1 launch pad fire in January 1967 killed the three-man crew and delayed the Apollo program while the spacecraft was redesigned for greater safety. Between October 1968 and May 1969, Apollo 7 through Apollo 10 tested the various components of the Apollo system. Apollo 7 tested the Command and Service Modules in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was mankind's first trip beyond Earth orbit, a dramatic Christmas trip to the Moon. Apollo 9 tested the Lunar Module in Earth orbit. Apollo 10 was a final dress rehearsal in lunar orbit, clearing the way for Apollo 11's historic flight. Throughout this time, the Soviet Union was not idle. Although they did not publicly announce their plans at the time, they too were planning a manned lunar voyage, which never actually occurred due to repeated failures of their giant booster rocket. However, they did attempt to steal Apollo 11's thunder by returning a small sample of lunar soil with the Luna 15 spacecraft just a few days prior to Apollo 11. This effort also failed when Luna 15 crashed on the Moon's surface on July 21, 1969. President Kennedy's goal was finally achieved when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and returned to Earth on July 24, 1969.
While Apollo 11 was the political culmination of the Apollo program, six more increasingly sophisticated missions were flown to the Moon prior to the end of Apollo. Apollo 13 was a near-fatal disaster due to the explosion of an oxygen tank in the Service Module. Apollo 12 and 14-17 were successful and provided much of the data on which our current scientific understanding of the Moon is built. Since the end of Apollo 17 in December 1972, no human has walked the surface of the Moon. The Galileo spacecraft obtained some imagery of the Moon during brief lunar flybys in 1990 and 1992. The Clementine spacecraft obtained detailed images and mapped the topography of the Moon from orbit in 1994. The Lunar Prospector spacecraft made an orbital survey of the Moon's chemical composition and gravitational and magnetic fields in 1998 and 1999. The results from Clementine and Lunar Prospector have contributed to a renaissance in lunar geology and geophysics studies during the last half of the 1990s. Several additional missions are under consideration by various governments. However, in this era of constrained budgets, it is anyone's guess as to when humans will return to the Moon. Apollo produced a torrent of new knowledge about the Moon, but our nearest neighbor in space remains an attractive target of exploration, both because of its scientific interest and as a testbed for developing techniques for exploring further into the solar system.
President Kennedy's Speech on Space Policy, Rice University, September 1962
The following documents are all from the NASA History Office. Documents that include a NASA Special Publication (SP) number were originally issued as books but are now out of print. Printed copies of NASA Special Publications should be available at libraries that archive U.S. government publications (check your local college or university).
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