12 September 1962

President John F. Kennedy at Rice University Stadium, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962. (Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Library)

“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. . . .”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Thirty-Fifth President of the United States of America, in a speech at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962.

And so, 2,500 days later. . .

Apollo 11/Saturn V launches from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 13:32:00.06 UTC, 16 July 1969. Destination: Mare Tranquillitatis, The Moon. (NASA)

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes

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4 thoughts on “12 September 1962

  1. Delivered in my first month of 6th grade in rural NY, the nation made good on this direction from President Kennedy. Late at night 20 July 1969, I said to my physics teacher father, “This is a victory for all the people with slide rules who got the decimal point in the right place.”

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