1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,000 And now, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:37,000 Thank you. 3 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,000 President Kitzin, Mr. Vice President, Governor, 4 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:48,000 President Kitzin, Mr. President, 5 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,000 President Kitzin, Mr. Vice President, 6 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:04,680 President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley and Congressman 7 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:13,160 Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. 8 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:19,160 I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor and I will 9 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:23,440 assure you that my first lecture will be very brief. 10 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:28,960 I am delighted to be here, and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. 11 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:36,880 We meet at a college, noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted 12 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:41,600 for strength, and we stand in need of all three. 13 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:49,000 For we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of 14 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,840 both knowledge and ignorance. 15 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:57,480 The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. 16 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:03,500 Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are 17 00:02:03,500 --> 00:02:11,440 alive and working today, despite the fact that this nation's own scientific manpower 18 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:19,240 is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth, more than three times that of our population 19 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:28,360 as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the 20 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:34,960 unfinished, still far outstrip our collective comprehension. 21 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:44,160 No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 22 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:51,600 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half a century. 23 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:59,520 Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them, 24 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:06,560 advanced men had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, 25 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:13,280 under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. 26 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:20,380 Only five years ago, man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. 27 00:03:20,380 --> 00:03:24,560 Christianity began less than two years ago. 28 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,760 The printing press came this year. 29 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,720 And then less than two months ago, 30 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,960 during this whole 50-year span of human history, 31 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:39,200 the steam engine provided a new source of power. 32 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,080 Newton explored the meaning of gravity. 33 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:50,800 Last month, electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. 34 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:57,520 Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power. 35 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:04,740 And now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally 36 00:04:04,740 --> 00:04:08,920 reached the stars before midnight tonight. 37 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:17,100 This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels 38 00:04:17,100 --> 00:04:18,500 old. 39 00:04:18,500 --> 00:04:26,300 New ignorance, new problems, new dangers, surely the opening vistas of space promise 40 00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:31,760 high costs and hardships as well as high reward. 41 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:39,280 So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, 42 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:40,280 to wait. 43 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:46,960 But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not 44 00:04:46,960 --> 00:05:00,960 built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. 45 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:07,800 This country was conquered by those who move forward, and so will space. 46 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:15,800 William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said 47 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:22,760 that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be 48 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:28,280 enterprise and overcome with answerable courage. 49 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:34,360 this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything. It is that man and his quest for 50 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:41,320 knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead 51 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:49,880 whether we join in it or not. And it is one of the great adventures of all time. And no nation 52 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:57,880 which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. 53 00:05:58,280 --> 00:06:07,280 Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolution, 54 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:13,280 the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power. 55 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:20,280 And this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. 56 00:06:20,280 --> 00:06:24,280 We mean to be a part of it. We mean to lead it. 57 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:44,040 For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond. 58 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:52,320 And we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but 59 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:55,920 by a banner of freedom and peace. 60 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,960 We have vowed that we shall not see space filled 61 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:02,600 with weapons of mass destruction, 62 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:06,520 but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. 63 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:12,040 Yet the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled 64 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,800 if we in this nation are first, and therefore we 65 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:17,880 intend to be first. 66 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:33,480 In short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations 67 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:41,760 to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, 68 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:44,480 to solve them for the good of all men, 69 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:49,400 and to become the world's leading space-faring nation. 70 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,320 We set sail on this new sea because there 71 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:58,120 is new knowledge to be gained and new rights to be won, 72 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:03,520 and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. 73 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:08,360 For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, 74 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,120 has no conscience of its own. 75 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:16,280 Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man. 76 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,920 And only if the United States occupies 77 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:25,400 a position of preeminence can we help decide 78 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,680 whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace 79 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,600 or a new terrifying theater of war. 80 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:38,640 I do not say that we should or will go unprotected 81 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:41,520 against the hostile misuse of space 82 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:44,320 any more than we go unprotected, 83 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:48,120 against the hostile use of land or sea. 84 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:52,720 But I do say that space can be explored and mastered 85 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,480 without feeding the fires of war, 86 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:58,240 without repeating the mistakes that man has made 87 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:02,360 in extending his writ around this globe of ours. 88 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:05,960 There is no strife, no prejudice, 89 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:09,960 No national conflict in outer space as yet. 90 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,920 Its hazards are hostile to us all. 91 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:17,120 Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind. 92 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,320 And its opportunity for peaceful cooperation 93 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:22,680 may never come again. 94 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:25,400 But why some say the moon? 95 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:28,280 Why choose this as our goal? 96 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:32,800 And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? 97 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:36,720 Five 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic. 98 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:38,900 Why does rice play Texas? 99 00:09:38,900 --> 00:09:41,680 We choose to go to the moon. 100 00:09:41,680 --> 00:09:43,200 We choose to go to the moon. 101 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:52,520 We choose to go to the moon in this decade 102 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,000 and do the other things, not because they are easy, 103 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,120 but because they are hard. 104 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:02,320 Because that goal will serve to organize and measure 105 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:08,120 the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing 106 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:17,120 to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too. 107 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:26,720 It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in 108 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:33,560 space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during 109 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:36,720 my incumbency in the office of the presidency. 110 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:43,520 In the last 24 hours, we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most 111 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,220 complex exploration in man's history. 112 00:10:47,220 --> 00:10:53,880 We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn, C1 booster 113 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:55,320 rocket. 114 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:02,140 many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalents 115 00:11:02,140 --> 00:11:07,240 to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. 116 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:15,360 We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight 117 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:23,240 engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile 118 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:27,560 assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral, 119 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:33,560 as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, 120 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:37,600 and as long as two lengths of this field. 121 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:42,260 Within these last 19 months, at least 45 satellites 122 00:11:42,260 --> 00:11:43,960 have circled the Earth. 123 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,000 Some 40 of them were made in the United States of America, 124 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,560 and they were far more sophisticated 125 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:54,080 and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world 126 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:56,480 than those of the Soviet Union. 127 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:58,000 The Mariner spacecraft. 128 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:07,500 The Mariner spacecraft now, in its way to Venus, 129 00:12:07,500 --> 00:12:10,440 is the most intricate instrument in the history 130 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,160 of space science. 131 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:16,360 The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile 132 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:19,640 from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium 133 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,280 between the 40-yard lines. 134 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:25,500 Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea 135 00:12:25,500 --> 00:12:27,760 to steer a safer course. 136 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,920 Tireless satellites have given us unprecedented warnings 137 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:33,560 of hurricanes and storms, and will 138 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:36,960 do the same for forest fires and icebergs. 139 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,040 We have had our failures, but so have others, 140 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:42,160 even if they do not admit them. 141 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:44,160 And they may be less public. 142 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:44,920 To be sure. 143 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:56,560 You'll be sure we are behind and will be behind for some time in manned flight. 144 00:12:56,560 --> 00:13:10,680 But we do not intend to stay behind and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. 145 00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:13,600 Growth of our science and education 146 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,080 will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe 147 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:19,560 and environment, by new techniques of learning 148 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:23,800 and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers 149 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:28,080 for industry, medicine, and the whole as well as the school. 150 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:30,800 Technical institutions such as Rice 151 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,120 will reap the harvest of these gains. 152 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:36,800 And finally, the space effort itself, 153 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,600 while still in its infancy, has already 154 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:45,600 created a great number of new companies and tens and thousands of new jobs. 155 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:51,020 Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and 156 00:13:51,020 --> 00:13:52,720 skilled personnel. 157 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:59,400 And this city and this state and this region will share greatly in this growth. 158 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:04,640 What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be 159 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:09,640 the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. 160 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:22,120 Houston, your city of Houston, with its manned spacecraft center, will become the heart of 161 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:26,080 a large scientific and engineering community. 162 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:32,240 During the next five years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double 163 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:35,880 the number of scientists and engineers in this area, 164 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:39,160 to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses 165 00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:43,480 to $60 million a year, to invest some $200 million 166 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,520 in plant and laboratory facilities, 167 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:50,320 and to direct or contract for new space efforts 168 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:54,760 over $1 billion from this center in this city. 169 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:59,080 To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. 170 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:06,140 This year's space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, 171 00:15:06,140 --> 00:15:11,240 and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. 172 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:18,980 That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year, a staggering sum, 173 00:15:18,980 --> 00:15:23,920 though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. 174 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:38,320 Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more 175 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:44,200 than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in the United States. 176 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:50,440 For we have given this program a high national priority, even though I realize that this 177 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:57,960 is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. 178 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:07,320 But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away 179 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:15,480 from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of 180 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:20,400 of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which 181 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:24,200 have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat 182 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,600 and stresses, several times more than have ever been 183 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:31,320 experienced, fitted together with a precision better 184 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:35,360 than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed 185 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:39,960 for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food, 186 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,640 and survival, on an untried mission 187 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:47,740 to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely 188 00:16:47,740 --> 00:16:50,440 to Earth, reentering the atmosphere 189 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:54,400 at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, 190 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,920 causing heat about half that on the temperature of the sun, 191 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:00,240 almost as hot as it is here today. 192 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:01,960 And do all this. 193 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:03,040 And do all this. 194 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:04,360 And do it right. 195 00:17:04,360 --> 00:17:07,880 And do it first before this decade is out. 196 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,000 Then we must be bold. 197 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:23,640 I'm the one who's doing all the work, so we get going to stay cool for a minute. 198 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:27,320 However, I think we're going to do it. 199 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,560 And I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. 200 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:34,180 I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. 201 00:17:34,180 --> 00:17:37,000 And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. 202 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,680 It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. 203 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:46,680 will be done during the terms of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. 204 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:51,680 But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade. And I am delighted 205 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:57,180 that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great 206 00:17:57,180 --> 00:18:10,780 national effort of the United States of America. Many years ago, the great British explorer 207 00:18:10,780 --> 00:18:18,540 George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. 208 00:18:18,540 --> 00:18:24,100 He said because it is there, well space is there, and we're going to climb it. 209 00:18:24,100 --> 00:18:29,380 And the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. 210 00:18:29,380 --> 00:18:36,580 And therefore as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous 211 00:18:36,580 --> 00:18:40,100 and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. 212 00:18:40,100 --> 00:18:42,100 Thank you. 213 00:19:10,100 --> 00:19:32,060 Please remain standing. God of all space, who has set the stars in their courses, and 214 00:19:32,060 --> 00:19:40,060 who does also dwell in the human heart. God of the light years, infinite beyond infinity, 215 00:19:40,060 --> 00:19:44,060 Who does also give meaning to our brief years? 216 00:19:44,060 --> 00:19:47,780 To thee we turn, for thy benediction. 217 00:19:47,780 --> 00:19:53,140 We give thee thanks, O God, for the rights with which thou hast endowed us, for the freedoms 218 00:19:53,140 --> 00:19:58,540 which Americans have secured and cherished and shared, for the love of truth and the 219 00:19:58,540 --> 00:20:03,300 dreams of adventure which propel pioneers out into space. 220 00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:08,660 We are grateful for the lofty vision of our president, for the intelligence and the eloquence 221 00:20:08,660 --> 00:20:11,160 which give wings to his words. 222 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,180 Guide and protect him, O Father, and all 223 00:20:14,180 --> 00:20:18,220 who are entrusted with the destiny of this great nation. 224 00:20:18,220 --> 00:20:20,660 May thy blessing rest upon us all. 225 00:20:20,660 --> 00:20:23,100 Bless us in our homes, in our schools, 226 00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:25,380 in our laboratories, our farms, our factories, 227 00:20:25,380 --> 00:20:27,260 our space capsules. 228 00:20:27,260 --> 00:20:29,860 Prosper us in our cities and our states. 229 00:20:29,860 --> 00:20:33,140 Make our country a worthy leader of the free world. 230 00:20:33,140 --> 00:20:37,860 And grant the blessings of peace to all mankind. 231 00:20:37,860 --> 00:20:38,760 Army. 232 00:21:07,860 --> 00:21:09,860 Robert.