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(Cheers)

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President Pitzer, Mr.
Vice President, Governor,

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Congressman Thomas, Senator
Wiley, and Congressman Miller,

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Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists,
distinguished guests,

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and ladies and gentlemen:

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I appreciate your president
having made me an honorary visiting

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professor, and I will assure you
that my first lecture will be very brief.

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I am delighted to be here,
and I'm particularly

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delighted to be here on this occasion.

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We meet at a college noted
for knowledge, in a city noted for

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progress, in a State noted for strength,
and we stand in need of all

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three, for we meet in an hour
of change and challenge, in a decade

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of hope and fear, in an age
of both knowledge and ignorance.

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The greater our knowledge increases,
the greater our ignorance unfolds.

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Despite the striking fact that most of the
scientists that the world has ever known

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are alive and working today,

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despite the fact that this Nation¹s
own scientific manpower is

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doubling every 12 years in a rate
of growth more than three times

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that of our population as a whole,
despite that, the vast stretches of

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the unknown and the unanswered
and the unfinished still far

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outstrip our collective comprehension.

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No man can fully grasp how far
and how fast we have come, but

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condense, if you will, the 50,000
years of man¹s recorded history in

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a time span of but a half-century.
Stated in these terms, we know

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very little about the first 40
years, except at the end of them

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advanced man had learned to use
the skins of animals to cover them.

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Then about 10 years ago,
under this standard, man emerged

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from his caves to construct other
kinds of shelter. Only five years

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ago man learned to write and use
a cart with wheels. Christianity

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began less than two years ago.
The printing press came this year,

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and then less than two months
ago, during this whole 50-year

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span of human history, the steam
engine provided a new source of power.

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Newton explored the meaning of gravity.

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Last month electric lights and telephones
and automobiles and airplanes became

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available.

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Only last week did we develop penicillin
and television and nuclear power,

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and now if America's new spacecraft
succeeds in reaching Venus,

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we will have literally reached
the stars before midnight tonight.

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This is a breathtaking pace,
and such a pace cannot help but

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create new ills as it dispels old,
new ignorance, new problems,

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new dangers. Surely the opening
vistas of space promise high

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costs and hardships,
as well as high reward.

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So it is not surprising that some
would have us stay where we are

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a little longer to rest, to wait.
But this city of Houston, this State of

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Texas, this country of the United
States was not built by those who

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waited and rested and wished
to look behind them.

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(Applause)

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This country was conquered by those
who moved forward--and so will space.

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William Bradford, speaking in 1630
of the founding of the Plymouth

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Bay Colony, said that all
great and honorable actions are

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accompanied with great difficulties,
and both must be enterprised

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and overcome with answerable courage.

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If this capsule history of our progress
teaches us anything, it is that

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man, in his quest for knowledge
and progress, is determined and

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cannot be deterred.
The exploration of space will go ahead,

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whether we join in it or not,
and it is one of the great adventures of

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all time, and no nation which
expects to be the leader of other

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nations can expect to stay
behind in the race for space.

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Those who came before us made
certain that this country rode the

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first waves of the industrial
revolutions, the first waves of modern

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invention, and the first wave
of nuclear power, and this generation

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does not intend to founder
in the backwash of the coming age of

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space. We mean to be a part
of it--we mean to lead it. (applause)

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For the eyes of the world
now look into space,

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to the moon and to the planets beyond,

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and we have vowed that we shall
not see it governed by a hostile

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flag of conquest,
but by a banner of freedom and peace.

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We have vowed that we shall not
see space filled with weapons of

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mass destruction, but with instruments
of knowledge and understanding.

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Yet the vows of this Nation can only
be fulfilled if we in this Nation

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are first, and, therefore,
we intend to be first. In short,

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our leadership in science and in industry,

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our hopes for peace and security,
our obligations to ourselves as well

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as others, all require us to make
this effort, to solve these mysteries,

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to solve them for the good of all men,

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and to become the world's
leading space-faring nation.

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We set sail on this new sea because
there is new knowledge to be gained,

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and new rights to be won, and they must
be won and used for the progress of all

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people. For space science,
like nuclear science and all technology,

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has no conscience of its own.

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Whether it will become a force
for good or ill depends on man,

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and only if the United States

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occupies a position of pre-eminence
can we help decide whether

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this new ocean will be a sea of peace
or a new terrifying theater of war.

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I do not say the we should or will go
unprotected against the hostile misuse

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of space

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any more than we go unprotected
against the hostile use of land or sea,

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but I do say that space can be explored
and mastered without feeding the fires

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of war,

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without repeating the mistakes that man
has made in extending his writ around

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this globe of ours.

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There is no strife, no prejudice, no
national conflict in outer space as yet.

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Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its
conquest deserves the best of all mankind,

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and its opportunity for peaceful
cooperation many never come again.

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But why, some say, the moon?
Why choose this as our goal?

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And they may well ask why
climb the highest mountain?

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Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?

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Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon.

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We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,

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not because they are easy,
but because they are hard,

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because that goal will serve to organize
and measure the best of our energies

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and skills, because that challenge
is one that we are willing to accept,

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one we are unwilling to postpone,

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and one we intend to win,
and the others, too.

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It is for these reasons that I
regard the decision last year to shift

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our efforts in space from low to high
gear as among the most important decisions

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that will be made during my incumbency
in the office of the Presidency.

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In the last 24 hours we have seen
facilities now being created for

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the greatest and most complex
exploration in man's history.

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We have felt the ground shake and the air
shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1

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booster rocket, many times as powerful
as the Atlas which launched John Glenn,

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generating power equivalent to 10,000
automobiles with their accelerators on

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the floor. We have seen the site
where the F-1 rocket engines,

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each one as powerful as all eight
engines of the Saturn combined,

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will be clustered together to make
the advanced Saturn missile,

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assembled in a new building to be built
at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story

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structure,

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as wide as a city block,
and as long as two lengths of this field.

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Within these last 19 months at least
45 satellites have circled the earth.

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Some 40 of them were "made
in the United States of America" and

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they were far more sophisticated
and supplied far more knowledge

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to the people of the world
than those of the Soviet Union.

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The Mariner spacecraft
now on its way to Venus

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is the most is the most intricate
instrument in the history of space

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science.

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The accuracy of that shot is comparable to
firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and

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dropping it in this stadium
between the the 40-yard lines.

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Transit satellites are helping
our ships at sea to steer a safer course.

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Tiros satellites have given us
unprecedented warnings of hurricanes

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and storms, and will do the same
for forest fires and icebergs.

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We have had our failures, but so have
others, even if they do not admit them.

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And they may be less public.

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To be sure, we are behind, and will be
behind for some time in manned flight.

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But we do not intend to stay
behind, and in this decade,

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we shall make up and move ahead.

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The growth of our science and education
will be enriched by new knowledge

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of our universe and environment,
by new techniques of learning and mapping

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and observation, by new tools and
computers for industry, medicine, the home

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as well as the school.
Technical institutions, such as Rice,

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will reap the harvest of these gains.

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And finally, the space effort itself,
while still in its infancy,

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has already created a great
number of new companies,

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and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space
and related industries are generating

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new demands in investment
and skilled personnel,

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and this city and this State, and this
region, will share greatly in this growth.

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What was once the furthest outpost on
the old frontier of the West will be the

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furthest outpost on the new
frontier of science and space.

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Houston, your City of Houston, with its
Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the

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heart of a large scientific
and engineering community.

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During the next 5 years the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration

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expects to double the number
of scientists and engineers in this area,

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to increase its outlays for salaries
and expenses to $60 million a year;

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to invest some $200 million
in plant and laboratory facilities;

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and to direct or contract for new
space efforts over $1 billion

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from this Center in this City.

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To be sure, all this costs
us all a good deal of money.

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This year¹s space budget is three
times what it was in January 1961,

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and it is greater than the space budget
of the previous eight years combined.

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That budget now stands at five billion,
four hundred million dollars a year--a

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staggering sum,

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though somewhat less than we pay
for cigarettes and cigars every year.

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Space expenditures will soon rise
some more, from 40 cents per person

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per week to more than 50 cents a week for

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every man, woman and child
in the United Stated,

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for we have given this program
a high national priority--

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even though I realize that this is in some
measure an act of faith and vision,

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for we do not now know
what benefits await us.

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But if I were to say, my fellow citizens,
that we shall send to the moon,

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240,000 miles away from the
control station in Houston,

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a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall,
the length of this football field,

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made of new metal alloys,
some of which have not yet been invented,

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capable of standing heat and stresses
several times more than have ever been

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experienced, fitted together with a
precision better than the finest watch,

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carrying all the equipment needed
for propulsion, guidance, control,

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communications, food and survival,
on an untried mission,

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to an unknown celestial body,
and then return it safely to earth,

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re-entering the atmosphere at speeds
of over 25,000 miles per hour,

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causing heat about half that of the
temperature of the sun--almost as hot

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as it is here today--

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and do all this, and do it right, and do
it first before this decade is out--then

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we must be bold.

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I'm the one who is doing all the work,
so we just want you to stay cool for

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a minute. [laughter]

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However, I think we're going to do it, and
I think that we must pay what needs to be

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paid. I don't think we ought to waste any
money, but I think we ought to do the job.

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And this will be done
in the decade of the sixties.

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It may be done while some of you are
still here at school at this college

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and university.

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It will be done during the term of office
of some of the people who sit here on

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this platform.

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But it will be done. And it will be
done before the end of this decade.

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I am delighted that this university
is playing a part in putting a man on

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the moon

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as part of a great national effort of
the United States of America. (applause)

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Many years ago the great
British explorer George Mallory,

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who was to die on Mount Everest,
was asked why did he want to climb it.

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He said, "Because it is there."

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Well, space is there,
and we're going to climb it,

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and the moon and the planets are there,
and new hopes for knowledge and peace are

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there. And, therefore, as we
set sail we ask God's blessing on

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the most hazardous and dangerous and
greatest adventure on which man has ever

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embarked. Thank you.

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(applause)