John F. Kennedy's 'Moon' Speech

Pol Light Moment #47 is when John F. Kennedy set high goals of Space exploration for the United States and gave his 'Moon' speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962. John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961-1963.

Here is video footage of the speech that John F. Kennedy gave on his goals for the United States' Space program at Rice Stadium. You can also read the text of it here.

One of the noteworthy lines that Kennedy said in the speech was,

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.

John F. Kennedy has been featured on other Pol Light posts. To view all John F. Kennedy posts search with John F. Kennedy label at Pol Light.

Quote Light: John F. Kennedy has a page on the Quote Light blog.

Pol Light does not endorse political candidates. We present a brighter side to politics when they are found on either side of the aisle. We don't have to agree with all of a person's politics to recognize these bright moments.

The photo of John F. Kennedy is in the Public Domain.

John Glenn Returns to Space at Age 77

John Glenn

Pol Light Moment #17 is when John Glenn returned to space at age 77 on October 29, 1998. John was born on July 18, 1921. John Glenn was a United States Senator at the time.  John Glenn represented the State of Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1974 to 1999.

John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. He circled the earth three times on February 20, 1962 aboard Friendship 7 on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission.  35 years later John Glenn convinced NASA to let him help them study the effects of aging on space travel and at age 77, he became the oldest man to again orbit the earth.  John Glenn was a crew member and the payload specialist in his return to space on the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) for a 9 day mission to orbit the earth from October 29, 1998 to November 7, 1998.

Here is a video of the launch where John Glenn returned to space on October 29, 1998.



The following chart from SpaceToday.org shows the comparison of the 1962 and 1998 flights John Glenn made orbiting the earth (Source).

John Glenn's Space Flights
1962	1998
Solo in capsule Friendship 7	With six others in shuttle Discovery
4 hours, 55 minutes	9 or 10 days
162 miles altitude	325 miles altitude
3 orbits 75,680 miles	144 orbits 3.6 million miles
360,000 pounds thrust Maximum 8 Gs	7 million pounds thrust Maximum 3 Gs

Pol Light does not endorse political candidates. We present a brighter side to politics when they are found on either side of the aisle. We don't have to agree with all of a person's politics to recognize these bright moments.

Photo: The photo of John Glenn in this post is in the Public Domain.

Ronald Reagan Addresses Nation After Challenger Disaster

Pol Light Moment #14 occured when Ronald Reagan addressed the shocked country following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981-1989.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds into flight, and the entire crew of 7 members were killed. The Challenger was on mission STS-51-L. Crew members lost included Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe (the first school teacher to travel in space), Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Dick Scobee, and Michael J. Smith.

Ronald Reagan cancelled his scheduled address on the State of the Union and instead chose to comfort the nation following the Challenger disaster, which was the first time the United States had lost a crew in space. Here is the address Ronald Reagan made following the Challenger disaster.
 
 

The entire text of the speech is at this link. In the closing part of his speech Reagan quoted from the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.:

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God (Source).'   Here is another video surrounding the Challenger Disaster. In the piece George H.W. Bush, who was the Vice-President at the time of this Pol Light moment talks about how well Ronald Reagan handled this tragedy.

Ronald Reagan has been featured on other Pol Light posts. To view all Ronald Reagan posts search with the Ronald Reagan label at Pol Light.

Pol Light does not endorse political candidates. We present a brighter side to politics when they are found on either side of the aisle. We don't have to agree with all of a person's politics to recognize these bright moments.

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Photo: The photo in this post is in the Public Domain.