[ applause ] thank you. President , 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 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. But 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 far outstrip our collective comeprehension. No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of mans recorded history in a time span about a half a century. Stated in these terms, we know we 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 cart 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 lights 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 suck seeds in reachi reaching venus, we will have reached the stars before midnight tonight. This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels out. New ignorance, problems, 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, it country of the United States, was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. [ applause ] this country was conquered by those who move 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 expiration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not. And it is one of the great add ventures 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 revolution, 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. [ applause ] 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 avowed 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. [ applause ] in short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our o 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 worlds leading space faring nation. We set sail on this new sea because there is no 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 preeminence 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 anymore 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 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 atlanta . Why does rice play texas . We choose to go to the moon. 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 were willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too. [ applause ] it is for these reasons that i regard the decision last year to shift our efforts into space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my inkum bency 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, see one booster rocket, many times as powerful as the atlas which launched john glenn. Generating with their accelerator on the floor. We have seen the site where five f1 rocket engines each one as all as powerful as the sat surn combined will be clustered together to make the advanced missile assembled at the new building to be built at cape n canaveral as tall as a 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 [ applause ] the mariner spacecraft now on its way to venus ask 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 40yard lines. Transit ships are steering a safer course. Tireless satellites have given us warnings of hurricanes and storms and will do the same for forest fires and more. To be sure [ applause ] to be sure we are behind, and will be behind for some time, m manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. [ applause ] 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 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. [ applause ] houston, 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 and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its out laisz for salaries and expenses to 60 million a year, to invest some 200 million in plant and laboratory facilities, and to direct our 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 years space budget is three times what it was in january 1961. And it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at 5,400,000,000 a year. A staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars. [ applause ] 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 al loiz, 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 untrooid 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 head about half that of the temperature on 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. [ applause ] im the one whos doing all the work so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. However i think were going to do it. And i think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I dont think we out waste any money but i think we ought to. It may be done in the 60s, might be done while you guys are still here at school, 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 of putting a man on the moon as part of the Great National effort on the part of the United States of america. [ applause ] many years ago, the Great British explorer george malory, who was to die on mt. Everest, was asked, why did he want to climb it . He said, because it is there. Well, space is there, and were 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 ] this is American History tv. Covering history, cspan style with lectures, interviews and discussions, with authors, historians and teachers. 48 hours all weekend every weekend only on cspan3. The house will be in order. For 40 years cspans that been providing america unfilledered coverage of congress, the white house, and the Supreme Court and public debates. You can make up your own mind. Created by krabl in 1979, its brought to you by your local provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. American history tv products are now available at the online store. Go to cspanstore. Org to see whats new and check out all of the cspan products. Next on American History tv, three women reflect on their experiences working on the apollo space program, sharing how they overcame challenges in their roles with nasa. This was hosted by the national air and space museum. [ applause ] , you know, we feel strongly that with the right inspiration and support one of our visitors could go on to change the world, in fact we like to think that the first person to set foot on mars will indeed have stepped through our doors first, and