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 time span of but a half-century... Only five years ago man learned to
and use a cart with wheels.
began less than two years ago. The
came this 'year', and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the
provided a new source of power.
Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month
and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and
, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching
, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.
If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and
, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not.
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
, but because they are
, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and
, because that
is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were 'made in the
,' and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the
.
We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public. But... we must be
.
Many years ago, the great
explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it? He said, "Because it is
."
Well,
is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and
are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest
on which man has ever embarked.
