50 miles. >> the battle for iwo jima told by the men who were there today at 5:00 eastern, part of american history tv this weekend on c-span3. this november 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of president john f. kennedy's assassination. this month on the presidency we'll look back at jfk's policies. on september 12th, 1962, president kennedy delivered a speech on the u.s. space program arguing that america should be the leader in space exploration and the first to land a man on the moon. this 20-minute address took place at rice university in houston.

>> mr. vice president, governor, congressman thomas, senator wily and congressman miller, mr. webb, mr. bell, scientists, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen, i appreciate your president having immediate he m made me an honorary visiting professor and i assure you my first lecture will be very brief. i am delighted to be here and 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. we meet in an hour of change and challenge and a decade of hope and fear. in an age of both knowledge and ignorance.

to greatest 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 nation's 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 searches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension. no man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come but condense if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a timespan of but a half century, stated in these terms,

we know very little about the first 40 years except that at the end of them, advanced man had used to use the stems of animals to cover them, and then about ten years ago, under this standard, man emerged from the cave 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 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. newton explored the meaning of gravity. electric lines and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. only last week, we redeveloped

penicillin and television and nuclear power. now, with america's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight. this is a breakthroughtaking pace. and such a pace cannot help but create new ils as it dispels no. new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. purely the opening vistas of space come at high cost and hardship as well as high reward. so it is not surprise some would have us stay where we are a little longer, to 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 wished to look behind them.

this country was conquered by those who move forward and so will space. william branford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the plymouth day county said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied by great difficulty. and both must be enterprises and overcome with answerable courage. if this teaches us anything, it is that man and his press for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred. the exploration of space will go ahead. whether we join in it or not. and it is one of the great adventures of all time. and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations

can expect to stay behind in this race to space. those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first wave 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 of the coming age of space. we need to be a part of it. we need to lead it. 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 be summoned by a hostile flag of conquest but by a banner of freedom, and we avow we shall not seek faith 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 obligation to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort. solve these for the good of all man and to become the world's leading 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 for the progress of all people. for space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of it own, whether it will bekfl 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 symbol of war. i do not say that we should or will go unprotected against a hostile misuse of space any more 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 grip around this globe of ours. there is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. is hazards are hostile to us all. its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. that's 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. 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 get the best of our energy and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postponing, and one we intend 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 man's history. we have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a booster rocket many times as powerful.

generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. we have seenhe sight where five f-1 rocket engines, each one as 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 48-story 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 the soviet union.

the mariner spacecraft -- [ applause ] the mariner spacecraft now on its way to venus is the most impotent 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 40 yard lines. transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. tirous satellites have given us 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 we will be behind for some time in manned flight, but we do not intend to stay behind and in

this decade we shall make up and move ahead. the growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment. our new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, our 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 games. 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 the 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 and space administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area. to increase its outlay for its salaries and expenses to $60 million a year. to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities, and to direct a contract a new space effort over $1 billion from this center in this city. to be sure, all of this cost us all a great deal of money.

this year's space budget is three times what it was in january 1961. and it is greater than the space's budget of the privious eight years combined. that budget now stands at $5.4 billion a year. a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. space expenditures -- [ 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 a football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of withstanding 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, communication, food, and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to other, re-entering to the atmosphere at speeds over 25,000 miles an hour, causing heat

about half that 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. i'm the one doing all the work, so stay cool for a minute. however, i think we're going to do it. and i think that we must pave what need to be paid. i don't think we ought to waste any money, but we ought to do the job, and this will be done in the decade. it may be done while some of you are at school at this college and university. it will be done in 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'm delighted this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort from the united states of america. many years ago, the great british explorer george malory who was to die on mt. everest who was asked why did he want to climb it. he said because it was there. space is there, and we're going to climb it. and the moon and the planets are there, and new hope for knowledge and peace are there. and therefore, as we set sail, we ask god's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. thank you.