Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: Kennedy emphasizes the pace of technological advances and addresses the challenges and fears that come with exploring space, underscoring the nation's pioneering spirit. | Keywords: #SpaceRace #Pioneers #NASA 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. This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help, but create new ills as it dispels old. New ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward. So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. (Applause) This country was conquered by those who move forward, and so will space. Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: Kennedy concludes with a stirring call to climb into space like climbing Everest, invoking hope for knowledge and peace, and asks for blessings on the great adventure. | Keywords: #SpaceAdventure #Legacy #JFK that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America. Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory who was to die on Mount Everest was asked why did he want to climb it he said because it is there well space is there and we're going to climb it and the moon and the planets are there and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there and therefore as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked thank you. [Applause] Speaker: Unknown | Rationale: A prayer invoking blessings on the nation, its leaders, and all involved in the space effort, emphasizing unity and peace as guiding principles. | Keywords: #Prayer #Unity #Peace Please remain standing. God of all space who has set the stars in their courses and who does also dwell in the human heart. God of the light years infinite beyond infinity who does also give meaning to our brief years to thee we turn for thy benediction we give thee thanks oh God for the rights with which thou hast endowed us for the freedoms which Americans have secured and cherished and shared for the love of truth and the dreams of adventure which propel pioneers out into space, we are grateful for the lofty vision of our president, for the intelligence and the eloquence which give wings to his words. Guide and protect him, O Father, and all who are entrusted with the destiny of this great nation. May thy blessing rest upon us all. Bless us in our homes, in our schools, in our laboratories, our farms, our factories, our space capsules. Prosper us in our cities and our states. Make our country a worthy leader of the free world and grant the blessings of peace to all mankind. Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: President Kennedy introduces the historic occasion at Rice University, setting the tone for the importance of knowledge, progress, and strength. | Keywords: #Kennedy #MoonSpeech #History President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate your President having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief. I am delighted to be here, and I am particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three. Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: Kennedy summarizes the rapid pace of human progress from primitive times to the modern space age, emphasizing the breathtaking speed of technological advancement. | Keywords: #Progress #SpaceAge #Technology Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago, man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year. And then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month, electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. 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. Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: Kennedy eloquently discusses the dual potential for space science to be used for good or ill, stressing America's role in determining the future nature of space exploration. | Keywords: #SpaceScience #Peace #USLeadership 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 preeminence 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. Speaker: John F. Kennedy | Rationale: Details of facilities being created for the greatest exploration in history, including the powerful Saturn booster rockets and the extensive satellite program. | Keywords: #SaturnRocket #SpaceFacilities #NASA It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear, as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the presidency. In the last 24 hours, we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalents to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. We have seen the site where five F1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral, as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field. Within these last 19 months, at least 45 satellites have circled the Earth. Some 40 of them were made in the United States of America, and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union. The Mariner spacecraft, the Mariner spacecraft now in its way to Venus, is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science.