How American Conservatism Killed The Great Success of JFK/LBJ in Space Program

[Procrustes Stretched]

How American Conservatism Killed The Great Success of JFK/LBJ in Space Program

Leave it up to conservatives to sell America short for short term political and economic gains over the liberal American tradition of greatness and

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. A number of political factors affected Kennedy's decision and the timing of it. In general, Kennedy felt great pressure to have the United States "catch up to and overtake" the Soviet Union in the "space race." Four years after the Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the U.S. While Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, he only flew on a short suborbital flight instead of orbiting the Earth, as Gagarin had done. In addition, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in mid-April put unquantifiable pressure on Kennedy. He wanted to announce a program that the U.S. had a strong chance at achieving before the Soviet Union. After consulting with Vice President Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the U.S. actually had a potential lead. Thus the cold war is the primary contextual lens through which many historians now view Kennedy's speech.

The decision involved much consideration before making it public, as well as enormous human efforts and expenditures to make what became Project Apollo a reality by 1969. Only the construction of the Panama Canal in modern peacetime and the Manhattan Project in war were comparable in scope. NASA's overall human spaceflight efforts were guided by Kennedy's speech; Projects Mercury (at least in its latter stages), Gemini, and Apollo were designed to execute Kennedy's goal. His goal was achieved on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module's ladder and onto the Moon's surface.

In honor of Kennedy's historic speech, below are some documents and other information relating to the decision to go to the Moon and Project Apollo that we hope you find useful.

Links to full text and audio versions of Kennedy's May 25, 1961 speech, as well as other key speeches and documents
Pdf versions of key original documents
Lots of information about Project Apollo and anniversary sites
A cool site devoted to the 30th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 1999
"Washington Goes to the Moon": A two-part radio program produced by WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C. that deals with the political story behind Project Apollo.

The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech before Congress

Following the success of the Apollo program, NASA had ambitions to build a series of increasingly large space stations that could house up to 100 people, ambitions that would require the economics of a reusable launch vehicle (Cayatte, 2008). However, with the election of President Nixon, political priorities changed in Washington and with subsequent budget cuts, NASA had to scrap their ambitions for large space stations, instead accepting the mission to “revolutionize transportation into near space, by routinizing it” (Nixon, 1972, p. 1). The new mission allowed NASA to continue development of the space shuttle, while forgoing their original purpose, in favor of building a vehicle that would allow “men and women with work to do in space [to] “commute” aloft, without having to spend years in training for the skills and rigors of old-style space flight” (Nixon, 1972). The new mission was the result of an agenda compromise and incremental decision-making in reaction to the struggling economy of the early seventies. Unfortunately, the political compromise contributed to mission fog, given the shuttle “was designed to be a transportation system, to go someplace else, but it eventually became, because of the lack of money, its own destination” (Cayatte, 2008, p. 1). Moreover, the space shuttle program needed to become cost-effective by hauling military and commercial satellites into low-earth orbit, further altering the shuttle design and introducing production performance pressure into a research and development agency.

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How did the space shuttle's mission change over time? Though the shuttle began as a platform for scientific studies, the need for subsidizing additional shuttle launches opened it up to commercial and military interests. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, those parties withdrew their missions and the shuttle was rededicated to science pursuits.

Why did the shuttle's original mission priorities change? President Richard Nixon decided to cancel the Apollo program and the space station in favor of developing the space shuttle program, a low-Earth orbit initiative.

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How did the space shuttle's mission change over time? Though the shuttle began as a platform for scientific studies, the need for subsidizing additional shuttle launches opened it up to commercial and military interests. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, those parties withdrew their missions and the shuttle was rededicated to science pursuits.

Why did the shuttle's original mission priorities change? President Richard Nixon decided to cancel the Apollo program and the space station in favor of developing the space shuttle program, a low-Earth orbit initiative.

NOVA Online | Teachers | Classroom Activity | Space Shuttle Disaster | PBS

The Space Shuttle Disasters: Organizational Fog at NASA « journey24pointoh

Space Shuttle program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

NOVA | Space Shuttle Disaster

 

[TheOldSchool]

What happened to NASA after the Apollo missions is one of the great tragedies of modern science. IMO man's most triumphant achievement was landing on the moon. The last time we did that was over 40 years ago. After that it became politically expedient to stop spending money on human ingenuity.

It took us 50 years to go from the Wright brothers to the moon. How is it that in the last 40 we've done nothing?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

What happened to NASA after the Apollo missions is one of the great tragedies of modern science. IMO man's most triumphant achievement was landing on the moon. The last time we did that was over 40 years ago. After that it became politically expedient to stop spending money on human ingenuity.

It took us 50 years to go from the Wright brothers to the moon. How is it that in the last 40 we've done nothing?

It is sad what the dis-ease of conservatism can do to mankind...always pulling back to the darkness of the past

 

[S.J.]

What happened to NASA after the Apollo missions is one of the great tragedies of modern science. IMO man's most triumphant achievement was landing on the moon. The last time we did that was over 40 years ago. After that it became politically expedient to stop spending money on human ingenuity.

It took us 50 years to go from the Wright brothers to the moon. How is it that in the last 40 we've done nothing?

It is sad what the dis-ease of conservatism can do to mankind...always pulling back to the darkness of the past

What a dick. Obama's stated goal for NASA is "Muslim Outreach". Talk about pulling back to the darkness of the past. Give me a fucking break.