This Day In History: John F. Kennedy Gives 1962 State of the Union Address
By NASA // January 11, 2016
ABOVE VIDEO: President Kennedy’s Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union.
(NASA.gov) – In his State of the Union message to the Congress, President John F . Kennedy said:
“With the approval of this Congress, we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space.
Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon, any more than Charles Lindbergh’s real aim was to be first to Paris. His aim was to develop the techniques and the authority of this country and other countries in the field of the air and the atmosphere, and our objective in making this effort, which we hope will place one of our citizens on the moon, is to develop in a new frontier of science, commerce and cooperation, the position of the United States and the free world.
LISTEN TO JOHN F. KENNEDY’S ENTIRE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
This nation belongs among the first to explore it. And among the first – if not the first – we shall be.”
Senate Staff Report, Documents on International Aspects of the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, 1954- 1962, p. 228.
