We Choose to Go to the Moon

The Moment#

September 12, 1962. Houston, Texas. Rice University Stadium.

A sweltering autumn day. Some forty thousand people gathered to hear the President of the United States speak. Few realized that seventeen minutes would change the course of human history.

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.

Full Speech#

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, 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.

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.

The Measure of Progress#

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come. But condense the entire 50,000 years of man’s recorded history into a span of half a century:

• For the first 40 years, we knew little — only at the end did advanced humans learn to cover themselves with animal skins
• About 10 years ago, man emerged from caves to build other kinds of shelter
• Only 5 years ago, man learned to write and use the wheeled cart
• Less than 2 years ago, Christianity was born
• This year, printing was invented
• Less than 2 months ago, the steam engine provided a new power source
• Newton explored the meaning of gravity
• Last month, electric lights, telephones, cars, and airplanes became available
• Last week, we developed penicillin, television, and nuclear power
• And if America’s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, by midnight tonight — we will have literally touched the stars.

Why the Moon?#

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.

The Cost#

The vast expanse of space promises high costs and hardships, along with great rewards.

But this country — the United States — was not built by those who waited, rested, and looked back. 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:

All great and honorable actions are accompanied by great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

Afterword#

Sixty-four years later, Kennedy’s words still resonate.

Apollo 11 ultimately fulfilled the promise on July 20, 1969 — Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface. But what was said that September afternoon in Houston represents something beyond the moon landing itself: the pinnacle of the human spirit of exploration.

Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

This article is demo content for the Lonetrail theme, showcasing long-form typography, blockquotes, and lists. Speech source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.