# John F. Kennedy, address at Rice University on the nation's space effort (12 September 1962)

- Speaker: John F. Kennedy
- Event: Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, Rice Stadium, Houston
- Date: 12 September 1962
- Length: 17 min 48 s
- Video URL: https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-at-rice-university-on-the-nations-space-effort (video and transcript); public-domain film: https://archive.org/details/John-F-Kennedy_Speech_Rice-Stadium
- Slides: None.
- Transcript source: Whisper (faster-whisper, model medium) on the archive.org film (item jfk_rice_speech); cross-checked against the JFK Library published text. Timestamps are from the archive.org film.
- Corrections: Corrections applied, checked against the JFK Library text: 'President Pitzer' (Rice's president, Kenneth Pitzer) in the greeting; 'will be very brief' (00:25); '$5,400 million a year' (14:07), which the machine heard as 'five billion four hundred million billion'.
- Format: `[mm:ss]` is the time the line starts in the source recording. Machine transcript: expect small word errors; quotes used in the analysis were checked against the published text where one exists.

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[00:02] President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley
[00:11] and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, ladies
[00:19] and gentlemen, I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting
[00:25] professor and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief. I
[00:30] am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on
[00:34] occasion. We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress,
[00:42] in a state noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three. For we meet
[00:49] in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of
[00:56] both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the
[01:02] the greater our ignorance unfolds.
[01:05] Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists
[01:08] that the world has ever known are alive and working today,
[01:14] despite the fact that this nation's own scientific manpower
[01:19] is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth,
[01:24] more than three times that of our population as a whole,
[01:28] Despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown,
[01:33] and the unanswered, and the unfinished,
[01:37] still far outstrip our collective comprehension.
[01:42] No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come.
[01:49] But condense, if you will, the 50,000 years
[01:54] of man's recorded history in a time span of about a half
[01:58] century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the
[02:04] first 40 years, except at the end of them, advanced men had
[02:09] learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then
[02:13] about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his
[02:18] caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five
[02:22] years ago, man learned to write and use a cart with
[02:27] wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this
[02:34] year. And then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human
[02:41] history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newton explored the
[02:48] meaning of gravity. Last month, electric lights and telephones and
[02:54] automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop
[03:00] penicillin and television and nuclear power. And now if America's new
[03:06] spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars
[03:13] before midnight tonight. This is a breathtaking pace and such a pace
[03:19] cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old. New ignorance, new problems,
[03:27] new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships
[03:36] as well as high reward. So it is not surprising that some would have us stay
[03:43] where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this
[03:50] state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who
[03:55] waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by
[04:10] those who move forward and so will space. William Brantford speaking in 1630
[04:18] of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony said that all great and
[04:24] honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties and both must be
[04:30] enterprise and overcome with answerable courage. If this capsule history of our
[04:37] progress teaches us anything, it is that man in his quest for knowledge and
[04:42] progress is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will
[04:48] go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures
[04:55] of all time and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can
[05:02] expect to stay behind in this race for space. Those who came before us made
[05:09] certain that this country rode the first waves of the Industrial Revolution, the
[05:15] first waves of modern invention and the first wave of nuclear power and this
[05:21] generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space
[05:28] we mean to be a part of it we mean to lead it for the eyes of the world now
[05:39] look into space to the moon and to the planets beyond and we have vowed that
[05:47] we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest but by a
[05:53] banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled
[06:00] with weapons of mass destruction but with instruments of knowledge and
[06:05] understanding. Yet the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled if we in
[06:13] this nation are first and therefore we intend to be first. In short, our
[06:27] Our leadership in science and industry,
[06:30] our hopes for peace and security,
[06:33] our obligations to ourselves as well as others,
[06:37] all require us to make this effort,
[06:40] to solve these mysteries,
[06:42] to solve them for the good of all men,
[06:45] and to become the world's leading spacefaring nation.
[06:50] We set sail on this new sea
[06:53] because there is new knowledge to be gained
[06:56] and new rights to be won.
[06:59] And they must be won and used for the progress of all people.
[07:04] For space science, like nuclear science and all technology,
[07:09] has no conscience of its own.
[07:12] Whether it will become a force for good or ill
[07:15] depends on man.
[07:17] And only if the United States occupies
[07:20] a position of preeminence can we
[07:24] help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace
[07:30] or a new terrifying theater of war.
[07:34] I do not say that we should or will go unprotected
[07:39] against the hostile misuse of space
[07:42] any more than we go unprotected
[07:45] against the hostile use of land or sea.
[07:49] But I do say that space can be explored and mastered
[07:53] without feeding the fires of war,
[07:56] without repeating the mistakes that man has made
[07:59] in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
[08:03] There is no strife, no prejudice,
[08:06] no national conflict in outer space as yet.
[08:10] Its hazards are hostile to us all.
[08:13] Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind
[08:18] and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation
[08:21] may never come again.
[08:23] But why some say the moon?
[08:26] Why choose this as our goal?
[08:29] And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain?
[08:33] Why 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?
[08:37] Why does Rice play Texas?
[08:39] We choose to go to the moon.
[08:42] We choose to go to the moon.
[08:50] We choose to go to the moon in this decade
[08:53] and do the other things.
[08:55] Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
[08:59] because that goal will serve to organize and measure
[09:03] the best of our energies and skills,
[09:06] because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept,
[09:10] one we are unwilling to postpone,
[09:13] and one we intend to win, and the others too.
[09:19] It is for these reasons that I regard the decision
[09:22] last year to shift our efforts in space
[09:26] from low to high gear as among the most important
[09:29] decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the Office of the Presidency.
[09:35] In the last 24 hours, we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most
[09:42] complex exploration in man's history.
[09:45] We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1
[09:52] booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating
[09:59] power equivalents to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. We
[10:05] have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all
[10:13] eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the
[10:19] advanced Saturn missile assembled in a new building to be built at Cape
[10:24] Canaveral, as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as
[10:32] long as two lengths of this field. Within these last 19 months, at least 45
[10:39] satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were made in the United
[10:44] States of America, and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more
[10:50] knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union. The
[10:55] Mariner spacecraft, the Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the
[11:06] most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy
[11:11] of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and
[11:16] dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines. Transit satellites
[11:21] are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tyre satellites have given
[11:27] us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms and will do the same for
[11:32] forest fires and icebergs. We have had our failures but so have others even if
[11:39] they do not admit them and they may be less public. To be sure, to be sure we
[11:49] are behind and will be behind for some time in manned flight, but we do not
[11:55] intend to stay behind and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. The
[12:09] growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our
[12:14] universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and
[12:18] observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the
[12:24] home as well as the school, technical institutions such as Rice will reap the
[12:30] harvest of these gains. And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its
[12:36] infancy, has already created a great number of new companies and tens and
[12:41] thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new
[12:47] demands in investment and skilled personnel and this city and this state
[12:53] and this region will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest
[12:59] outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new
[13:05] frontier of science and space. Houston, your city of Houston, with its manned
[13:16] spacecraft center, will become the heart of a large scientific and
[13:22] engineering community. During the next five years, the National Aeronautic and
[13:28] Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers
[13:32] in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to 60
[13:38] million dollars a year, to invest some 200 million dollars in plant and
[13:42] laboratory facilities, and to direct our contract for new space efforts over
[13:49] one billion dollars from this center in this city. To be sure all this costs us
[13:55] all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was
[14:01] in January 1961 and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight
[14:07] years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million
[14:13] a year, a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars
[14:21] every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week
[14:36] to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in the United States, for
[14:42] we have given this program a high national priority. Even though I realize that this
[14:49] is in some measure an act of faith and vision for we do not now know what
[14:55] benefits await us but if I were to say my fellow citizens that we shall send to
[15:02] the moon 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston a giant
[15:09] rocket more than 300 feet tall the length of this football field made of
[15:16] new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing
[15:22] heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted
[15:28] together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the
[15:33] equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and
[15:38] survival on an untried mission to an unknown celestial body and then return
[15:45] it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing
[15:53] heat about half that on the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today,
[15:58] and do all this, and do all this, and do it right, and do it first, before this
[16:04] decade is out, then we must be bold.
[16:17] I'm the one who's doing all the work, so we get the boys to stay cool for a minute.
[16:23] However, I think we're going to do it.
[16:25] And I think that we must pay what needs to be paid.
[16:29] I don't think we ought to waste any money,
[16:30] but I think we ought to do the job.
[16:32] And this will be done in the decade of the 60s.
[16:35] It may be done while some of you are still here at school
[16:38] at this college and university.
[16:40] It will be done during the terms of office
[16:42] of some of the people who sit here on this platform.
[16:45] But it will be done.
[16:46] And it will be done before the end of this decade.
[16:49] And I am delighted that this university is playing a part
[16:52] in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States
[16:57] of America.
[16:58] Many years ago, the great British explorer, George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest,
[17:14] was asked why did he want to climb it.
[17:17] He said, because it is there.
[17:18] Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it.
[17:22] And the moon and the planets are there.
[17:24] And new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
[17:27] And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous
[17:35] and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.
[17:38] Thank you.