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{
    "localId": "193886",
    "label": "Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962",
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    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193886"
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{
    "id": "193886",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193886",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962",
    "description": "This folder contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's remarks at the Rice University Stadium in Houston, Texas concerning the nation's efforts in space exploration. In his speech the President discusses the necessity for the United States to become an international leader in space exploration, and famously states, \"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.\" Materials in this folder include a draft by Special Counsel and speechwriter Theodore Sorensen, press copies, and a reading copy of the speech. Of note are several items with handwritten notations by the President.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193886",
    "identifierLocal": "JFKPOF-040-001",
    "creators": [
        "Sorensen, Theodore Chaikin, 1928-2010"
    ],
    "collections": [
        "Papers of John F. Kennedy: Presidential Papers: President's Office Files",
        "Speech Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Cold War"
    ],
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    "imageCount": 42,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

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        "year": 1962
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    "seq": 9,
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    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/1938/193886/content/presidential-libraries/kennedy/POF/JFKPOF-040-001/JFKPOF-040-001-p0010.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "If we are, my fellow citizens, to send to the moon, 240 thousand miles away\nfrom the control station here in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet\nhigh -- made of new metal alloys that have not yet even been developed\ncapable of standing heats and stresses several times that ever before experienced\nfitted together with a precision many time s finer than the finest watch\ncarrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communica-\ntions, food and survival on an untried mission to an unknown celestial body\n--\nand then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds up to\n25,000 miles an hour, causing heat about half the temperature of the sun's\nown surface and do all this and do it right and do it first before this decade\nis out then we must be bold and daring and unflinching.\nThere will, I can assure you, be hours of set-back and frustration. Others will\nrecord milestones before we do. Danger will accompany each trip, as it has\naccompanied all feats of exploration.\nBut I believe we have the courage and the patience that are needed. We have the\nintellectual and the financial resources we have the will and the energy\nand\nthe vision and fate has provided us with the challenge.\nWe cannot afford to shrink from it now. I do not believe you would have us\nshrink from it. And that is why this Administration, with bi-partisan support,\nis pledged to make American space leadership more than a wish and more than\na goal. Vie are pledged to make it a reality.\nGeorge Mallory the great British explorer who died on its frozen wall said he\nwanted to climb Mt. Everest \"Because it is there. \" My fellow citizens: outer\nspace is there -- the moon and the planets beyond are there -- new hopes for\nknowledge and peace are there with them. So let us make ready to sail on this\nunknown sea; and ask God as we set sail for His blessing and help."
}