Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "7347333",
    "label": "Press Release from Congressman Gerald Ford Regarding the Apollo 11 Space Flight",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347333"
}

{
    "id": "7347333",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347333",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Press Release from Congressman Gerald Ford Regarding the Apollo 11 Space Flight",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347333",
    "collections": [
        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
        "Press Releases Chronological Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/3473/7347333/content/arcmedia/presidential-libraries/ford/4525504/005400715-001.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/3473/7347333/content/arcmedia/presidential-libraries/ford/4525504/005400715-001.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/3473/7347333/content/arcmedia/presidential-libraries/ford/4525504/005400715-001.jpg",
    "imageCount": 2,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347333",
    "naId": 7347333,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 22,
            "logicalDate": "1969-07-22",
            "month": 7,
            "year": 1969
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/3473/7347333/content/arcmedia/presidential-libraries/ford/4525504/005400715-001.jpg",
    "mediaId": "89be8294fd250d94",
    "ocrText": "distribution: Full\nGallenie\nair\n1:10 p.m. 7/22/69\n1:30pm\nM Office Copy\nCONGRESSMAN\nNEWS\nGERALD R. FORD\nHOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER\nRELEASE\n--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--\nJuly 22, 1969\nStatement by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., Minority Leader, U.S. House of Reps.\nplaced in the body of the Congressional Record of Tuesday, July 22, 1969.\nMr. Speaker, yesterday I was in Grand Rapids, Mich., and was unable to join\nmy colleagues in the House in expressing the jubilation we all felt over America's\nmighty achievement -- manned exploration of the moon.\nIn the exhilaration we all experienced during the lunar landing and moon\nwalk, many Americans perhaps forgot that the Apollo Project cost far more than the\nestimated $24 billion expended on sending a man to the moon. It also took the\nlives of three fine Americans. Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom in a\nflash fire that swept through their Apollo spacecraft Jan. 27, 1967, while it sat\non a Cape Kennedy launch pad. Roger Chaffee was from my home town of Grand Rapids.\nWe went to the same high school.\nMr. Speaker, the flight of Apollo 11 was such a scintillating success that\nit almost seemed easy.\nI would venture to guess that one reason the flight was so flawless was\nbecause the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ordered a full-scale\nrebuilding of the Apollo spacecraft after the tragic fire in 1967. Safety\nprecautions were tightened up, over-all.\nMr. Speaker, let us all salute Neil Armstrong, Ed Aldrin and Mike Collins\nand pray for a safe splashdown in the Pacific on Thursday. But let us also say\na prayer for Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom and Ed White and pay tribute to them for\nthe heroic contribution they made so that Eagle might land on the moon and return\nto planet earth.\nMr. Speaker, with the successful flight of Apollo 11 the United States has\nopened up the universe for all the peoples of the earth.\nI believe our moon journey has kindled a new feeling of pride in country\nin all our citizens -- a new and much-needed patriotism, if you will.\nThis welling up of national pride is most natural. I am sure the other\npeoples of the world flash an understanding smile as we throw out our chests and\ncrow just a little.\n# # #\nCOURSE"
}