WEBVTT

00:00:02.830 --> 00:00:09.830
(Cheers)

00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:26.337
President Pitzer, Mr.
Vice President, Governor,

00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:30.347
Congressman Thomas, Senator
Wiley, and Congressman Miller,

00:00:30.430 --> 00:00:35.083
Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists,
distinguished guests,

00:00:35.166 --> 00:00:37.317
and ladies and gentlemen:

00:00:37.400 --> 00:00:41.987
I appreciate your president
having made me an honorary visiting

00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:47.687
professor, and I will assure you
that my first lecture will be very brief.

00:00:47.770 --> 00:00:50.347
I am delighted to be here,
and I'm particularly

00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:53.607
delighted to be here on this occasion.

00:00:53.690 --> 00:00:58.387
We meet at a college noted
for knowledge, in a city noted for

00:00:58.470 --> 00:01:03.777
progress, in a State noted for strength,
and we stand in need of all

00:01:03.860 --> 00:01:10.127
three, for we meet in an hour
of change and challenge, in a decade

00:01:10.210 --> 00:01:15.967
of hope and fear, in an age
of both knowledge and ignorance.

00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:21.847
The greater our knowledge increases,
the greater our ignorance unfolds.

00:01:21.930 --> 00:01:28.554
Despite the striking fact that most of the
scientists that the world has ever known

00:01:28.637 --> 00:01:30.817
are alive and working today,

00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:36.787
despite the fact that this Nation¹s
own scientific manpower is

00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:41.667
doubling every 12 years in a rate
of growth more than three times

00:01:41.750 --> 00:01:48.750
that of our population as a whole,
despite that, the vast stretches of

00:01:49.050 --> 00:01:54.587
the unknown and the unanswered
and the unfinished still far

00:01:54.670 --> 00:01:59.087
outstrip our collective comprehension.

00:01:59.170 --> 00:02:05.647
No man can fully grasp how far
and how fast we have come, but

00:02:05.730 --> 00:02:12.730
condense, if you will, the 50,000
years of man¹s recorded history in

00:02:14.220 --> 00:02:19.447
a time span of but a half-century.
Stated in these terms, we know

00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:25.307
very little about the first 40
years, except at the end of them

00:02:25.390 --> 00:02:28.347
advanced man had learned to use
the skins of animals to cover them.

00:02:28.430 --> 00:02:35.430
Then about 10 years ago,
under this standard, man emerged

00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:39.967
from his caves to construct other
kinds of shelter. Only five years

00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:45.687
ago man learned to write and use
a cart with wheels. Christianity

00:02:45.770 --> 00:02:52.697
began less than two years ago.
The printing press came this year,

00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:59.780
and then less than two months
ago, during this whole 50-year

00:03:00.040 --> 00:03:03.977
span of human history, the steam
engine provided a new source of power.

00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:07.297
Newton explored the meaning of gravity.

00:03:07.380 --> 00:03:13.838
Last month electric lights and telephones
and automobiles and airplanes became

00:03:13.921 --> 00:03:14.677
available.

00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:21.187
Only last week did we develop penicillin
and television and nuclear power,

00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:27.557
and now if America's new spacecraft
succeeds in reaching Venus,

00:03:27.640 --> 00:03:32.647
we will have literally reached
the stars before midnight tonight.

00:03:32.730 --> 00:03:38.397
This is a breathtaking pace,
and such a pace cannot help but

00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:44.877
create new ills as it dispels old,
new ignorance, new problems,

00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:50.827
new dangers. Surely the opening
vistas of space promise high

00:03:50.910 --> 00:03:56.417
costs and hardships,
as well as high reward.

00:03:56.500 --> 00:04:00.857
So it is not surprising that some
would have us stay where we are

00:04:00.940 --> 00:04:07.047
a little longer to rest, to wait.
But this city of Houston, this State of

00:04:07.130 --> 00:04:12.357
Texas, this country of the United
States was not built by those who

00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:16.297
waited and rested and wished
to look behind them.

00:04:16.380 --> 00:04:23.380
(Applause)

00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:31.687
This country was conquered by those
who moved forward--and so will space.

00:04:31.770 --> 00:04:38.037
William Bradford, speaking in 1630
of the founding of the Plymouth

00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:42.917
Bay Colony, said that all
great and honorable actions are

00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:49.147
accompanied with great difficulties,
and both must be enterprised

00:04:49.230 --> 00:04:52.237
and overcome with answerable courage.

00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:56.947
If this capsule history of our progress
teaches us anything, it is that

00:04:57.030 --> 00:05:00.887
man, in his quest for knowledge
and progress, is determined and

00:05:00.970 --> 00:05:06.447
cannot be deterred.
The exploration of space will go ahead,

00:05:06.530 --> 00:05:11.477
whether we join in it or not,
and it is one of the great adventures of

00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:17.557
all time, and no nation which
expects to be the leader of other

00:05:17.640 --> 00:05:23.137
nations can expect to stay
behind in the race for space.

00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:28.527
Those who came before us made
certain that this country rode the

00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:33.827
first waves of the industrial
revolutions, the first waves of modern

00:05:33.910 --> 00:05:39.087
invention, and the first wave
of nuclear power, and this generation

00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:44.407
does not intend to founder
in the backwash of the coming age of

00:05:44.490 --> 00:05:51.490
space. We mean to be a part
of it--we mean to lead it. (applause)

00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:04.674
For the eyes of the world
now look into space,

00:06:04.758 --> 00:06:08.357
to the moon and to the planets beyond,

00:06:08.440 --> 00:06:13.567
and we have vowed that we shall
not see it governed by a hostile

00:06:13.650 --> 00:06:20.650
flag of conquest,
but by a banner of freedom and peace.

00:06:21.090 --> 00:06:25.087
We have vowed that we shall not
see space filled with weapons of

00:06:25.170 --> 00:06:30.837
mass destruction, but with instruments
of knowledge and understanding.

00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:37.920
Yet the vows of this Nation can only
be fulfilled if we in this Nation

00:06:38.140 --> 00:06:45.140
are first, and, therefore,
we intend to be first. In short,

00:06:47.282 --> 00:06:53.707
our leadership in science and in industry,

00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:59.543
our hopes for peace and security,
our obligations to ourselves as well

00:06:59.626 --> 00:07:05.109
as others, all require us to make
this effort, to solve these mysteries,

00:07:05.192 --> 00:07:08.057
to solve them for the good of all men,

00:07:08.140 --> 00:07:14.547
and to become the world's
leading space-faring nation.

00:07:14.630 --> 00:07:20.207
We set sail on this new sea because
there is new knowledge to be gained,

00:07:20.290 --> 00:07:27.290
and new rights to be won, and they must
be won and used for the progress of all

00:07:28.144 --> 00:07:32.987
people. For space science,
like nuclear science and all technology,

00:07:33.071 --> 00:07:35.067
has no conscience of its own.

00:07:35.150 --> 00:07:40.892
Whether it will become a force
for good or ill depends on man,

00:07:40.975 --> 00:07:43.617
and only if the United States

00:07:43.700 --> 00:07:49.647
occupies a position of pre-eminence
can we help decide whether

00:07:49.730 --> 00:07:56.730
this new ocean will be a sea of peace
or a new terrifying theater of war.

00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:04.969
I do not say the we should or will go
unprotected against the hostile misuse

00:08:05.052 --> 00:08:05.687
of space

00:08:05.770 --> 00:08:12.467
any more than we go unprotected
against the hostile use of land or sea,

00:08:12.550 --> 00:08:16.789
but I do say that space can be explored
and mastered without feeding the fires

00:08:16.872 --> 00:08:17.177
of war,

00:08:17.260 --> 00:08:24.260
without repeating the mistakes that man
has made in extending his writ around

00:08:25.529 --> 00:08:27.487
this globe of ours.

00:08:27.570 --> 00:08:34.237
There is no strife, no prejudice, no
national conflict in outer space as yet.

00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:41.320
Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its
conquest deserves the best of all mankind,

00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:47.497
and its opportunity for peaceful
cooperation many never come again.

00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:52.617
But why, some say, the moon?
Why choose this as our goal?

00:08:52.700 --> 00:08:58.597
And they may well ask why
climb the highest mountain?

00:08:58.680 --> 00:09:01.197
Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?

00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:06.227
Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon.

00:09:06.310 --> 00:09:13.310
We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,

00:09:18.900 --> 00:09:22.467
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard,

00:09:22.550 --> 00:09:28.985
because that goal will serve to organize
and measure the best of our energies

00:09:29.069 --> 00:09:34.737
and skills, because that challenge
is one that we are willing to accept,

00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:36.857
one we are unwilling to postpone,

00:09:36.940 --> 00:09:43.940
and one we intend to win,
and the others, too.

00:09:44.560 --> 00:09:49.357
It is for these reasons that I
regard the decision last year to shift

00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:56.277
our efforts in space from low to high
gear as among the most important decisions

00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:59.847
that will be made during my incumbency
in the office of the Presidency.

00:09:59.930 --> 00:10:05.307
In the last 24 hours we have seen
facilities now being created for

00:10:05.390 --> 00:10:09.857
the greatest and most complex
exploration in man's history.

00:10:09.940 --> 00:10:16.687
We have felt the ground shake and the air
shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1

00:10:16.771 --> 00:10:23.677
booster rocket, many times as powerful
as the Atlas which launched John Glenn,

00:10:23.760 --> 00:10:29.598
generating power equivalent to 10,000
automobiles with their accelerators on

00:10:29.681 --> 00:10:35.551
the floor. We have seen the site
where the F-1 rocket engines,

00:10:35.635 --> 00:10:42.147
each one as powerful as all eight
engines of the Saturn combined,

00:10:42.230 --> 00:10:46.237
will be clustered together to make
the advanced Saturn missile,

00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:53.320
assembled in a new building to be built
at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story

00:10:53.652 --> 00:10:54.497
structure,

00:10:54.580 --> 00:11:01.437
as wide as a city block,
and as long as two lengths of this field.

00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:07.347
Within these last 19 months at least
45 satellites have circled the earth.

00:11:07.430 --> 00:11:11.247
Some 40 of them were "made
in the United States of America" and

00:11:11.330 --> 00:11:17.037
they were far more sophisticated
and supplied far more knowledge

00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:24.120
to the people of the world
than those of the Soviet Union.

00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:30.667
The Mariner spacecraft
now on its way to Venus

00:11:30.750 --> 00:11:35.695
is the most is the most intricate
instrument in the history of space

00:11:35.778 --> 00:11:36.287
science.

00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:40.977
The accuracy of that shot is comparable to
firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and

00:11:41.060 --> 00:11:45.897
dropping it in this stadium
between the the 40-yard lines.

00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:51.087
Transit satellites are helping
our ships at sea to steer a safer course.

00:11:51.170 --> 00:11:55.321
Tiros satellites have given us
unprecedented warnings of hurricanes

00:11:55.405 --> 00:12:00.397
and storms, and will do the same
for forest fires and icebergs.

00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:05.567
We have had our failures, but so have
others, even if they do not admit them.

00:12:05.650 --> 00:12:07.277
And they may be less public.

00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:14.360
To be sure, we are behind, and will be
behind for some time in manned flight.

00:12:19.380 --> 00:12:22.247
But we do not intend to stay
behind, and in this decade,

00:12:22.330 --> 00:12:29.330
we shall make up and move ahead.

00:12:33.690 --> 00:12:38.787
The growth of our science and education
will be enriched by new knowledge

00:12:38.870 --> 00:12:43.497
of our universe and environment,
by new techniques of learning and mapping

00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:49.317
and observation, by new tools and
computers for industry, medicine, the home

00:12:49.400 --> 00:12:53.907
as well as the school.
Technical institutions, such as Rice,

00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:57.227
will reap the harvest of these gains.

00:12:57.310 --> 00:13:00.937
And finally, the space effort itself,
while still in its infancy,

00:13:01.020 --> 00:13:05.067
has already created a great
number of new companies,

00:13:05.150 --> 00:13:11.227
and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space
and related industries are generating

00:13:11.310 --> 00:13:16.967
new demands in investment
and skilled personnel,

00:13:17.050 --> 00:13:23.307
and this city and this State, and this
region, will share greatly in this growth.

00:13:23.390 --> 00:13:27.827
What was once the furthest outpost on
the old frontier of the West will be the

00:13:27.910 --> 00:13:34.910
furthest outpost on the new
frontier of science and space.

00:13:39.130 --> 00:13:45.047
Houston, your City of Houston, with its
Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the

00:13:45.130 --> 00:13:49.107
heart of a large scientific
and engineering community.

00:13:49.190 --> 00:13:53.642
During the next 5 years the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration

00:13:53.725 --> 00:13:58.947
expects to double the number
of scientists and engineers in this area,

00:13:59.030 --> 00:14:05.047
to increase its outlays for salaries
and expenses to $60 million a year;

00:14:05.130 --> 00:14:09.577
to invest some $200 million
in plant and laboratory facilities;

00:14:09.660 --> 00:14:15.467
and to direct or contract for new
space efforts over $1 billion

00:14:15.550 --> 00:14:17.857
from this Center in this City.

00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:22.057
To be sure, all this costs
us all a good deal of money.

00:14:22.140 --> 00:14:29.087
This year¹s space budget is three
times what it was in January 1961,

00:14:29.170 --> 00:14:34.547
and it is greater than the space budget
of the previous eight years combined.

00:14:34.630 --> 00:14:41.630
That budget now stands at five billion,
four hundred million dollars a year--a

00:14:41.935 --> 00:14:43.257
staggering sum,

00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:50.340
though somewhat less than we pay
for cigarettes and cigars every year.

00:14:54.690 --> 00:14:59.607
Space expenditures will soon rise
some more, from 40 cents per person

00:14:59.690 --> 00:15:03.027
per week to more than 50 cents a week for

00:15:03.110 --> 00:15:07.047
every man, woman and child
in the United Stated,

00:15:07.130 --> 00:15:12.567
for we have given this program
a high national priority--

00:15:12.650 --> 00:15:17.857
even though I realize that this is in some
measure an act of faith and vision,

00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:22.197
for we do not now know
what benefits await us.

00:15:22.280 --> 00:15:28.017
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens,
that we shall send to the moon,

00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:33.497
240,000 miles away from the
control station in Houston,

00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:40.517
a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall,
the length of this football field,

00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:45.557
made of new metal alloys,
some of which have not yet been invented,

00:15:45.640 --> 00:15:50.747
capable of standing heat and stresses
several times more than have ever been

00:15:50.830 --> 00:15:56.727
experienced, fitted together with a
precision better than the finest watch,

00:15:56.810 --> 00:16:01.137
carrying all the equipment needed
for propulsion, guidance, control,

00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:06.057
communications, food and survival,
on an untried mission,

00:16:06.140 --> 00:16:11.677
to an unknown celestial body,
and then return it safely to earth,

00:16:11.760 --> 00:16:17.897
re-entering the atmosphere at speeds
of over 25,000 miles per hour,

00:16:17.980 --> 00:16:22.168
causing heat about half that of the
temperature of the sun--almost as hot

00:16:22.251 --> 00:16:23.397
as it is here today--

00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:30.480
and do all this, and do it right, and do
it first before this decade is out--then

00:16:39.638 --> 00:16:42.747
we must be bold.

00:16:42.830 --> 00:16:46.931
I'm the one who is doing all the work,
so we just want you to stay cool for

00:16:47.014 --> 00:16:48.047
a minute. [laughter]

00:16:48.130 --> 00:16:53.521
However, I think we're going to do it, and
I think that we must pay what needs to be

00:16:53.604 --> 00:16:56.947
paid. I don't think we ought to waste any
money, but I think we ought to do the job.

00:16:57.030 --> 00:17:00.647
And this will be done
in the decade of the sixties.

00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:06.047
It may be done while some of you are
still here at school at this college

00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:07.157
and university.

00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.841
It will be done during the term of office
of some of the people who sit here on

00:17:09.924 --> 00:17:10.317
this platform.

00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:14.097
But it will be done. And it will be
done before the end of this decade.

00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:18.648
I am delighted that this university
is playing a part in putting a man on

00:17:18.731 --> 00:17:19.147
the moon

00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:26.230
as part of a great national effort of
the United States of America. (applause)

00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:35.877
Many years ago the great
British explorer George Mallory,

00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:41.857
who was to die on Mount Everest,
was asked why did he want to climb it.

00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:44.047
He said, "Because it is there."

00:17:44.130 --> 00:17:47.037
Well, space is there,
and we're going to climb it,

00:17:47.120 --> 00:17:51.431
and the moon and the planets are there,
and new hopes for knowledge and peace are

00:17:51.514 --> 00:17:56.747
there. And, therefore, as we
set sail we ask God's blessing on

00:17:56.830 --> 00:18:03.166
the most hazardous and dangerous and
greatest adventure on which man has ever

00:18:03.250 --> 00:18:05.987
embarked. Thank you.

00:18:06.070 --> 00:18:13.070
(applause)