President nixon, mr. Vice president , governor, congressman thomas and congressman miller. Mr. Webb, val, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate your president having made me a visiting honorary professor, and i assure you my first lecture will be very brief. I am delighted to be here, and i am 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 nations 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 are far beyond our comprehension. No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come. But con sense, if you will, the 50,000 years of mans recorded history in a time span of 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 ten years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago, man learned to write, and use a car with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The Printing Press came this year. And then, less than two months ago, during this whole 50year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month, electric pumps and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week, did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power. And now, if americas new spacecraft succeeds in reaching venus, we will have literally reached the stars before so it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer and 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 wish to look behind them. This country was pumped by those who move forward, and so will space. William branford, speaking in 1630, of the founding of the plymouth bay colony, said that all breaks and honorable actions are accompanied with great dfly. And must be overcome with 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 expiration of space will go ahead. Whether we join in it or not. And it is one of the Great Adventures of alltime. 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 revolution. The first waves of modern invention. And the first wave of nuclear power. And this generation does not intend to flounder in the backwash in the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it, we mean to lead it. All the eyes of the world beyond. And we have vowed that we shall not see by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom. And peace. We avow 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 industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves, as well as others, all require us to make this happen, to solve these mysteries. To solve them for the good of all men, and to become the worlds leading spacebearing 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 on 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 preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theatre of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space anymore than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land. Or sea. But i do say that space can be explored without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his grip around this globe of ours. There is no strive, no prejudice, no National Conflict in outer space, as yet. Its hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. Some say the moon. I choose this as our goal. And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain . Why 35 years ago, why the atlantic . Why does rice play texas . We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. applaud 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 post postpone and one we are willing 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 decision 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 mans history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a saturn c1 booster rocket. Many times as powerful as the atlas which launched john glenn generating power equivalence to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. We have seen the site where five f1 rocket engines, each one is 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 48story 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 in the soviet union. The manned spacecraft the mariner spacecraft now on its way to venus is the most advanced. The accuracy is capable of firing a missile from Cape Canaveral to dropping it between the 40 yard lines. Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea through safer course. Tire satellites have given it 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 applause 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 should 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 and the home as well as the school, technical institutions will reap the harvest of these gapes. And finally the space effort itself while still in its infancy has already created great number of new companies and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demand 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 applause your city of houston with its manned Spacecraft Center will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next five years, the National Aeronautic space administraion is expected to double to increase outlays for salaries and expenses to 60 million a year, to invest some 200 million in plant and Laboratory Facilities and to direct our contract and new space efforts over 1 billion on this setup in this city. To be sure all this costs us all a good deal of money, this years space budget is three times what it was in january of 1961. And it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at 5,400,000 a year. Far 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 ever been experienced. Pitted together with a precision better than the finest watch. Carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control and 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 the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all this, and do all this and do it right and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold. applause im the one doing all the work, however i think we need to do it. I think we need to pay what needs to be paid. I dont think we aught to waste money but we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the60s. It may be done while some of you are still at this 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, and i am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon, as part of the Great National effort of the United States of america. Many years who was a to die on montana everest was asked why he was to climb it, because he said he was there, well space is there and we are 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 gods blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Thank you. applause we feel strongly with the right support one of our visitors can change the world, and we like to think that the first person to set foot on mars, will indeed have stepped through our doors first. And maybe she will come back here to give a grand lecture of her own someday. Before introducing a speakers i would like to let you know that we have a special guest that is able to join us at the last moment. Her name is Marion Johnson and like the women featured in the movie she was one of the Space Programs it i