We choose to go to the Moon

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The Nation's Space Effort

John F. Kennedy speaks at Rice University
Date	September 12, 1962; 54 years ago (1962-09-12)
Duration	18 minutes
Venue	Rice Stadium
Location	Rice University, Houston, Texas
Theme	The US Space effort

This article is part of a series about John F. Kennedy
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The "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort", or better known informally as the "We choose to go to the moon" speech, was delivered by U.S. President John F. Kennedy to a large crowd gathered at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962. It was one of Kennedy's earlier speeches meant to persuade the American people to endorse the Apollo program, the national effort to land a man on the Moon.

Background[edit]

President John F. Kennedy delivers his proposal to put a man on the Moon before a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961.

When John F. Kennedy became president during January 1961, many Americans perceived that the United States was losing the Space Race with the USSR, which had successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, almost four years earlier.^[1] The perception increased when during April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space before the U.S. could launch its first Project Mercury astronaut. Convinced of the political need to make an achievement which would decisively demonstrate America's space superiority, and after consulting with NASA to identify such an achievement, Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”^[2][3]

Kennedy's goal gave a specific mission to National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo program. This required the expansion of NASA's Space Task Group into a Manned Spacecraft Center. Houston, Texas was chosen as the site, and the Humble Oil and Refining Company donated the land during 1961, with Rice University as an intermediary. Kennedy took advantage of the 1962 construction of the facility to deliver a speech on the nation's space effort.

The speech[edit]

Kennedy's speech on the nation's space effort delivered at Rice Stadium on September 12, 1962 (17m 40s).
See also: The full text of We choose to go to the Moon at Wikisource

JFK explained the cost of the entire space budget to be "somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars", equating to 40 cents per week "for every man, woman and child in the United States", saying that the "high national priority" of the Moon program will require this to increase to more than 50 cents a week.^[4]

On September 12, 1962, President Kennedy delivered his speech before a crowd of 35,000 people in the Rice University football stadium, the most memorable and quoted portion of the speech is in the middle:

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 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 pre-eminence 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 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 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 conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and 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 Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?^[5]

We choose to go to the Moon! ...^[6] We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,^[7] 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 we intend to win ...^[8][9]

Rhetoric[edit]

Kennedy's speech used three strategies: "a characterization of space as a beckoning frontier; an articulation of time that locates the endeavor within a historical moment of urgency and plausibility; and a final, cumulative strategy that invites audience members to live up to their pioneering heritage by going to the moon."^[10]

When addressing the world at Rice University, he stated the American desire to do what had never been done before by exploring space, and being the first to do it with the pioneering spirit that had dominated American folklore since the nation’s foundation, this allowed Kennedy to reference back to his inaugural speech, when he declared to the world “Together let us explore the stars”.

Kennedy verbally condenses human history to fifty years, in which “only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.”^[11] With this extended metaphor, Kennedy sought to imbue a sense of urgency and change in his audience.

Most prominently, the phrase “We choose to go to the moon” in the Rice speech is repeated three times consecutively, followed by an explanation that climaxes in his declaration that the challenge of space is “one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”^[12] Considering the line before rhetorically asked the audience why they choose to compete in tasks that challenge them, Kennedy highlighted here the nature of the decision to go to space as being a choice, an option that the American people have elected to pursue. Rather than claim it as essential, he emphasized the benefits such an endeavor could provide – uniting the nation and the competitive aspect of it, as Kennedy told Congress earlier, “whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”^[13] These were words that emphasized the freedoms enjoyed by Americans to choose their destiny rather than have it chosen for them, and combined with Kennedy’s overall usage of rhetorical devices in the Rice University speech, these famous words are particularly apt as a declaration that began the American space race.

Altogether, Kennedy was able to describe a romantic notion of space in the Rice University speech with which all citizens of the United States, and even the world could participate, vastly increasing the number of citizens allegedly interested in space exploration, he began by talking about Space as the new frontier for all of mankind, instilling the dream within the audience. He then condensed human history to show that within a very brief period of time space travel will be possible, informing the audience that their dream is achievable. Lastly, he uses the first-personal plural “we” to represent all the people of the world that would allegedly explore space together, but also involves the crowd.^[14]

Aftermath[edit]

NASA Budget as Percentage of Federal Budget.

Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, wrote concerning the speech on its 50th anniversary that:

Kennedy's oration was front-page news around the country. Pundits saw it as another Ted Sorenson-penned speech drenched in terrestrial aspiration, but for all of its soaring rhetoric, the Rice address was grounded in pragmatism. Kennedy made the case to taxpayers that NASA needed a $5.4 billion budget. Kennedy also did a tremendous job of connecting the moonshot to Houston in ways that thrilled locals. "We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength," he said. "And we stand in need of all three." What Kennedy did so brilliantly that day was frame the moonshot as being instrumental for U.S. security reasons.^[15]

In popular culture[edit]

• In the Falling Skies season 4 episode "Til Death Do Us Part", resistance leader Tom Mason quotes part of the speech while trying to convince his family to begin an attack on an alien base on the Moon. After they reveal the ship they need for the voyage, Tom quotes the line "we choose to go to the Moon" as part of his reaction.
• Dance artist Dana Tai Soon Burgess created a dance work in collaboration with NASA called "We choose to go to the moon" that opened with audio from President Kennedy's speech, which included the iconic line. It premiered at the Kennedy Center in September 2015.^[16][17][18]
• Excerpts from the speech are used throughout the song "The Race For Space" on the 2015 album of the same name by British alternative music group Public Service Broadcasting.
• On April 21, 2017, KFC released a campaign featuring Rob Lowe as astronaut Colonel Sanders giving a spoof/homage of JFK's Rice speech about launching the Zinger chicken sandwich into space.^[19]

See also[edit]

• List of missions to the Moon
• Apollo 11
• Neil Armstrong
• Buzz Aldrin
• Saturn (rocket family)
• Apollo Command/Service Module
• Apollo Lunar Module
• S-IVB
• Trans-lunar injection
• Budget of NASA
• NASA spin-off technologies

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• DeGroot, Gerard. "The Dark Side Of The Moon." History Today 57.3 (2007): 11-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
• Launius, Roger D. 2003. "Kennedy's Space Policy Reconsidered: A Post-Cold War Perspective." Air Power History 50, no. 4: 16-29. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2013)

External links[edit]

• Video of full half-hour presentation (in hd)
• John F. Kennedy Moon Speech at Rice Stadium and Apollo 11 Mission Video
• The text, video and audio of the entire speech