Die Raumfahrtpolitik Amerikas

Ich habe soeben im Radio gehört, dass der US-amerikanische Präsident Bush eine Grundsatzerklärung zur Raumfahrt angekündigt hat.
Demnach wollen die USA im kommenden Jahrzehnt sowohl eine ständig bemannte Mondstation einrichten als auch Astronauten zum Mars schicken.
Wenn das mehr ist als ein billiges Wahlkampfmanöver, das nach den Wahlen wieder in der Versenkung verschwindet, besteht wieder Hoffnung für die Raumfahrt.
Vor allem wenn sich in den USA auch die anderen Bewerber um die Präsidentschaft für Raumfahrt einsetzen und die anderen Nationen den USA den Weltraum nicht allein überlassen.

auf http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ausland/artikel/541/24517/ steht dazu

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Bushs Raumfahrt-Pläne

Der Kennedy-Moment

Kennedy hat es getan, Bush senior hat es getan und nun will auch der amtierende Präsident seine Nation hinter einem Projekt einen, das hinaus führt aus den Niederungen des Kampfes gegen die Hydra Terrorismus und die Diva Weltwirtschaft: Ein Raumfahrtprogramm muss her. Fernziel: einen Menschen auf den Mars zu bringen.

An Bord der Präsidentenmaschine Air Force One impfte der New York Times zufolge Präsidentensprecher Scott McClellan Reporter mit der News, sein Chef werde nächsten Mittwoch eine Rede halten, die von den Prioritäten und der Zukunft des US-Raumfahrtprogramms handeln werde.

Seit dem Herbst hatte das Weiße Haus ähnlich lautende Berichte noch dementiert und behauptet, es stehe keine Äußerung des Präsidenten in näherer Zukunft bevor. Nun hat die die interne Kommission, die sich mit der Zukunft der Luft und Raumfahrt-Behörde Nasa beschäftigte, offenbar gekreißt.

Keine detaillierte Roadmap werde es geben, bemühte sich ein Präsidentenberater allerdings laut New York Times, den Ball flach zu halten, eher ein ?mission statement? ? ein breites Bekenntnis, bei dem das Ende offen gelassen werde.

Geldsorgen

Soviel aber scheint klar zu sein: Der Beraterkreis unter Federführung von Bushs Vertrautem Karl Rove hat sich darauf geeinigt, die Errichtung einer bewohnten Basis auf dem Mond anzustreben. Diese Basis könne als Sprungbrett für einen bemannten Flug zum Mars dienen.

Ein Sprungbrett soll die Ankündigung eines neuen Raumfahrtprogramms natürlich auch für George W. Bush sein. Sie kommt sechs Tage vor seiner letzten "Rede zur Nation" in dieser Legislaturperiode und damit pünktlich zum Auftakt der heißen Phase des Wahlkampfs.

Um das gigantische Projekt wirklich in Angriff zu nehmen, muss die Regierung Bush, innerhalb derer das Vorhaben offenbar auch nicht unumstritten ist, allerdings erst einmal den Kongress überzeugen. Hauptschwierigkeit: das Geld.

Als Bush Vater 1989 mit einer Mars-Mission punkten wollten, scheiterte das Projekt an den im doppelten Wortsinn astronomischen Kosten: 400 Milliarden Dollar veranschlagte die Nasa laut Washington Post damals für die Mondbasis nebst Mars-Mission.

Zu den finanziellen gesellen sich technische Schwierigkeiten: Derzeit verfügen die USA nicht über eine Rakete, die imstande wäre, den Transport der Bauteile für eine Mond-Basis zu bewerkstelligen. Allein um sie zu entwickeln, rechnen Experten mit Jahren.

Jobmaschine

Dem gegenüber steht die Erwartung, mit einem Projekt dieser Größenordnung die Nation zu einen, oder, wie es ein Berater laut Post ausdrückte, einen ?Kennedy-Moment? zu erreichen. Kennedy hatte 1961 gefordert, die USA müssten binnen einer Dekade einen Menschen zum Mond und wieder zurück bringen.

Ein Raumfahrtprogramm dieser Größenordnung wäre darüber hinaus eine Jobmaschine, besonders für Bushs Heimatstaat Texas, wo das Gehirn der Raumfahrt-Industrie, das Johnson Space Center, sitzt.

Ein Problem wenigstens ist schon gelöst: Auf dem Mond befinden sich noch drei Mondfahrzeuge, die - so behaupten es wenigstens ihre Konstrukteure - noch fahrtüchtig sind.

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Ich selbst halte von George W. Bush überhaupt nichts. Andererseits hoffe ich, dass auch eine andere Administration in Washington die hier  skizzierten Raumfahrt-Pläne weiter verfolgt. Die Motive, aus denen Bush das Raumfahrt-Programm neu auflegen will - Suche nach publikumswirksamen Erfolgen, Jobs durch die Raumfahrt -
gelten auch für einen anderen Präsidenten.
Zudem gelten sie nicht nur für die USA, sondern auch für Europa und die EU. Wir sind zwar nicht so tief in dubiose aussenpolitische Abenteuer verstrickt wie Mr. Bush, aber Old Europe hat auch nicht viel Positives zu bieten. So oder so sollten wir auf die Raumfahrt-Pläne der USA reagieren. Falls die immensen Lasten auch für die USA zu viel sind, wäre Zusammenarbeit abzustreben. Sollte sich der Aufwand in Grenzen halte, wären eigene ergänzende Projekte anzustreben.

.... interesanter Artikel aus der SZ... nur die Frage stellt sich wer hat den die Mondrover dort hingebracht..:-) weil es scheint jawohl doch nicht unerhebliche Zweifel daran zugeben ob die Amerikaner überhaupt wirklich auf dem Mond waren. In einem Medienbereicht hatte ich vernommen das immer mehr Amerikaner, mittlerweile wohl um die 20 %,   n i c h t  daran glauben das jemals eine Mensch auf dem Mond war !

Die noch immer offenen und nicht beantworteten Fragestellungen der Kritiker wurden angeblich von der NASA nie beantwortet. In einem Fernsehbericht wurden einige Fragen hierzu erläutert, sodaß sich selbst mir als quasi Laie, auch die Frage stellt ob je überhaupt ein Mensch auf dem Mond war....

Ein Problem ist wohl, daß die Mondlandung bald 35 Jahre her ist. Überall wird Fortschritt gepredigt und die erfolgreichen Mondlandungen machen diese Kulturmaxime fast ein wenig lächerlich. Also fängt man mit allen Mitteln an zu zweifeln.

Übrigens habe ich selbst noch die National Geographic Berichte aus dieser Zeit und einen Satz kopierte Dias von den ursprünglichen Hasselblad Aufnahmen. Dort tauchen die ganzen Seltsamkeiten nicht auf...

Jedermann, der an der Mondlandung zweifelt, empfehle ich folgende Seite: http://www.mondlandung.pcdl.de/index.htm Das Apolloprojekt gehört wohl zu den am meist dokumentierten Ereignissen überhaupt.


Zu Busch' Rede schrieb ich in einem anderen Forum:

Sehr mager, das Ganze. Eine Milliarde Dollar mehr pro fünf Jahre wird nicht für einen neuen Shuttletyp, einen Mondbasis und eine Marslandung reichen. Ach so, die anderen Länder sollen sich daran beteiligen. Wenn es dann nicht klappt, kann der pensionierte Busch sagen, dass seine o-so-guten Pläne an der fehlenden Leistung der anderen (Demokraten, Deutschland, bitte beliebig einfüllen) gescheitert ist.

Ich freue mich einfach über jedes angefangene und erfolgreiche Projekt. Wenigstens sieht es so aus, dass die USA nicht bei der Raumfahrtstation ISS kneifen wird.



Damit wir auch ganz genau wissen, über was wir reden, gibt es hier die Rede von Busch (vielleicht stellt es sich noch als praktisch heraus, um dies im Archiv als Beweis zu haben):


THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm honored to be with the men and women of NASA. I thank those of you who have come in person. I welcome those who are listening by video. This agency, and the dedicated professionals who serve it, have always reflected the finest values of our country -- daring, discipline, ingenuity, and unity in the pursuit of great goals.

America is proud of our space program. The risk takers and visionaries of this agency have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity.

Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own.

I am comfortable in delegating these new goals to NASA, under the leadership of Sean O'Keefe. He's doing an excellent job. (Applause.) I appreciate Commander Mike Foale's introduction -- I'm sorry I couldn't shake his hand. (Laughter.) Perhaps, Commissioner, you'll bring him by -- Administrator, you'll bring him by the Oval Office when he returns, so I can thank him in person.
I also know he is in space with his colleague, Alexander Kaleri, who happens to be a Russian cosmonaut. I appreciate the joint efforts of the Russians with our country to explore. I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous spacial entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country. (Applause.)

And we've got some veterans with us today. I appreciate the astronauts of yesterday who are with us, as well, who inspired the astronauts of today to serve our country. I appreciate so very much the members of Congress being here. Tom DeLay is here, leading a House delegation. Senator Nelson is here from the Senate. I am honored that you all have come. I appreciate you're interested in the subject -- (laughter) -- it is a subject that's important to this administration, it's a subject that's mighty important to the country and to the world.

Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They made that journey in the spirit of discovery, to learn the potential of vast new territory, and to chart a way for others to follow.

America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons. We have undertaken space travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character. And that quest has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives in countless ways. The exploration of space has led to advances in weather forecasting, in communications, in computing, search and rescue technology, robotics, and electronics. Our investment in space exploration helped to create our satellite telecommunications network and the Global Positioning System. Medical technologies that help prolong life -- such as the imaging processing used in CAT scanners and MRI machines -- trace their origins to technology engineered for the use in space.

Our current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far and they have served us well. The Space Shuttle has flown more than a hundred missions. It has been used to conduct important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge. Shuttle crews, and the scientists and engineers who support them, have helped to build the International Space Station.

Telescopes -- including those in space -- have revealed more than 100 planets in the last decade alone. Probes have shown us stunning images of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets of our solar system. Robotic explorers have found evidence of water -- a key ingredient for life -- on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter. At this very hour, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is searching for evidence of life beyond the Earth.

Yet for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and to learn. In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world, or ventured farther upward into space than 386 miles -- roughly the distance from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts. America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter century. It is time for America to take the next steps.

Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing programs and personnel. We'll make steady progress -- one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time.

Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what we have started, we will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation and weightlessness pose dangers to human health, and we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration.

To meet this goal, we will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the Space Shuttle -- after nearly 30 years of duty -- will be retired from service.

Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module.

Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration. Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods. Eugene Cernan, who is with us today -- the last man to set foot on the lunar surface -- said this as he left: "We leave as we came, and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." America will make those words come true. (Applause.)

Returning to the moon is an important step for our space program. Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce the costs of further space exploration, making possible ever more ambitious missions. Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's gravity is expensive. Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far lower gravity using far less energy, and thus, far less cost. Also, the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air. We can use our time on the moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging environments. The moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement.

With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond. (Applause.) Robotic missions will serve as trailblazers -- the advanced guard to the unknown. Probes, landers and other vehicles of this kind continue to prove their worth, sending spectacular images and vast amounts of data back to Earth. Yet the human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures, or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch for ourselves. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel.

As our knowledge improves, we'll develop new power generation propulsion, life support, and other systems that can support more distant travels. We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos. (Applause.)

And along this journey we'll make many technological breakthroughs. We don't know yet what those breakthroughs will be, but we can be certain they'll come, and that our efforts will be repaid many times over. We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.

This will be a great and unifying mission for NASA, and we know that you'll achieve it. I have directed Administrator O'Keefe to review all of NASA's current space flight and exploration activities and direct them toward the goals I have outlined. I will also form a commission of private and public sector experts to advise on implementing the vision that I've outlined today. This commission will report to me within four months of its first meeting. I'm today naming former Secretary of the Air Force, Pete Aldridge, to be the Chair of the Commission. (Applause.) Thank you for being here today, Pete. He has tremendous experience in the Department of Defense and the aerospace industry. He is going to begin this important work right away.

We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities of this new era of discovery. The vision I outline today is a journey, not a race, and I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship.

Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA's current five-year budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for the new endeavors will come from reallocating $11 billion within that budget. We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress to increase NASA's budget by roughly a billion dollars, spread out over the next five years. This increase, along with refocusing of our space agency, is a solid beginning to meet the challenges and the goals we set today. It's only a beginning. Future funding decisions will be guided by the progress we make in achieving our goals.

We begin this venture knowing that space travel brings great risks. The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago. Since the beginning of our space program, America has lost 23 astronauts, and one astronaut from an allied nation -- men and women who believed in their mission and accepted the dangers. As one family member said, "The legacy of Columbia must carry on -- for the benefit of our children and yours." The Columbia's crew did not turn away from the challenge, and neither will we. (Applause.)

Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey.

May God bless. (Applause.)

Und aus dem 'Fact Sheet':

The President's plan for steady human and robotic space exploration is based on the following goals:

First, America will complete its work on the International Space Station by 2010, fulfilling our commitment to our 15 partner countries. The United States will launch a re-focused research effort on board the International Space Station to better understand and overcome the effects of human space flight on astronaut health, increasing the safety of future space missions.

To accomplish this goal, NASA will return the Space Shuttle to flight consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the Station, and the Shuttle will be retired by the end of this decade after nearly 30 years of service.


Second, the United States will begin developing a new manned exploration vehicle to explore beyond our orbit to other worlds -- the first of its kind since the Apollo Command Module. The new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, will be developed and tested by 2008 and will conduct its first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will also be capable of transporting astronauts and scientists to the International Space Station after the Shuttle is retired.


Third, America will return to the Moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020 and use it as a stepping stone for more ambitious missions. A series of robotic missions to the Moon, similar to the Spirit Rover that is sending remarkable images back to Earth from Mars, will explore the lunar surface beginning no later than 2008 to research and prepare for future human exploration. Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, humans will conduct extended lunar missions as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods.

The extended human presence on the Moon will enable astronauts to develop new technologies and harness the Moon's abundant resources to allow manned exploration of more challenging environments. An extended human presence on the Moon could reduce the costs of further exploration, since lunar-based spacecraft could escape the Moon's lower gravity using less energy at less cost than Earth-based vehicles. The experience and knowledge gained on the Moon will serve as a foundation for human missions beyond the Moon, beginning with Mars.

NASA will increase the use of robotic exploration to maximize our understanding of the solar system and pave the way for more ambitious manned missions. Probes, landers, and similar unmanned vehicles will serve as trailblazers and send vast amounts of knowledge back to scientists on Earth.

Hallo,

hier hat jemand Hausaufgaben gemacht:  http://www.mondlandung.pcdl.de/

Zum Vergleich zur Busch-Rede folgt hier die Mond-Rede von KENNEDY:


TEXT OF PRESIDENT JOHN KENNEDY'S RICE STADIUM MOON SPEECH
President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and 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'm 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 all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. 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.

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

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, 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 pre-eminence 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 the 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 many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

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 C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where the F-1 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 now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this Center in this City.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year¹s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year--a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United Stated, for we have given this program a high national priority--even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.

But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. [laughter]

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

I am delighted 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.