We Choose to Go to the Moon...

In a time of global upheaval, President John F. Kennedy challenged America to ply her great intellectual and industrial energies to the exploration of space. In so doing, Kennedy united a nation divided by fear and uncertainty, and stoked the fires of purpose and patriotism in 190 million American hearts.

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of what has come to be known as Kennedy’s We Choose to go to the Moon speech, NASA and the leadership of Rice University—where President Kennedy delivered the famed, 1961 address—are preparing to host a series of events chronicling and celebrating the history and achievements of America’s space program.

The agency will provide live coverage of the event’s finale on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website at 11:00 CDT on Monday, 12 September.

In addition to a keynote address by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, the program will feature presentations by Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche, as well as other agency officials, dignitaries, and—to the enduring joy of the American People—local and national politicians.

NASA brass, including Nelson and Wyche, will be available to speak to the media at Rice University at 09:30 CDT on the event date.

Event attendees will enjoy exhibits from NASA, the Houston Space Center, Rice University, and space industry partners—all of which will be presented in honor and commemoration of the historic challenge and unprecedented commitment of resources by which President John F. Kennedy set America’s nascent space agency on the path to successfully landing Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon in the summer of 1969.

More than half-a-century after Apollo, NASA—by dint of its Artemis program—is making ready to return human beings to Earth’s moon. Comprising five planned missions, Artemis—by degrees—sets out to explore regions near the lunar south pole, and eventually establish the first long-term human presence on the moon. The program’s inaugural launch, Artemis I, will (eventually) see United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket send Lockheed Martin’s Orion spacecraft and a crew of three sensor-laden mannequins on a test-flight that will assess the utility and efficacy of the selfsame systems to which American astronauts will soon entrust their lives.

FMI: www.nasa.gov