The Man Who Chose the Moon: How Kennedy Made the Boldest Decision

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin hurtling around the Earth, marking the first time humans had stepped through the atmosphere and into space. Three weeks later, the United States began the slow process of catching up, with the launch of Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7. But the 15-minute suborbital first flight of the Mercury program was less impressive and demonstrated less technological power than Gagarin's orbital flight.

Nevertheless, Americans were elated at finally putting a man in space. In Florida, people dropped what they were doing to stand in the streets and watch the flight. Splashdown parties cropped up throughout the United States. President Kennedy was keenly aware of, and sought to capitalize on, the pride that swept through the nation in the wake of the Mercury flight. And so he set new goalposts for the space race, twenty days later, on May 25, during a special session of Congress: “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

But Shepard’s mission didn't come close to matching the Soviet orbital accomplishment, leaving the United States the second-best nation in space-faring activities. Second was not a standing Kennedy wanted, nor one he wanted for his nation. He wanted the United States to surpass and exceed its rival.

For their part, the American people at large were less concerned with their secondary standing and more focused on NASA's accomplishment. The joy coursing through the nation was infectious and Kennedy wasn't immune. He saw in the space program a chance to prolong the positive mood, and supersede the country’s ideological and military adversary.

Three days after the flight on May 8, 1961, Kennedy invited the Mercury astronauts and a selection of NASA administrators to the White House for a ceremony, where Kennedy presented Shepard with a Distinguished Service Medal for his contribution to the nation's space efforts. But the event was about more than medals and cocktails. As Alan Shepard recalls in his memoirs, after the ceremony, Jackie Kennedy took the astronauts' wives on a tour of the White House while the President, the astronauts, a selection of White House staff, and a handful of NASA officials moved into the Oval Office.

Without preamble, Kennedy asked for a briefing of what NASA was doing – not planning or thinking about — actually doing. He wanted something bigger than a suborbital flight, some great goal the nation could rally behind that would be personified by the astronauts the country was so eager to celebrate. He wanted to exploit the honor and courage the astronauts radiated. It was clear that the space race was gathering steam, and the young President knew the world was watching. He was all too aware that he had to take the proper steps if he and his country were to come out on top.

The NASA administrators present revealed the agency was considering sending a man to the moon – a daring proposal not unanimously supported within the organization but a plausible one nonetheless. Kennedy turned to the astronauts and asked their opinion since they would likely be the very men to go. All seven declared they were ready.

In fact, NASA had been doing more than just thinking about it: before the National Aeronautics and Space Act actually created NASA, research centers had been researching the technology necessary for a moon program. In 1955, before the space age had properly begun, North American Aviation (NAA, the company that built the X-15) began developing a 1 million-pound thrust rocket. In 1957, the Army Ballistic Missile Association, under the direction of Wernher von Braun began working on a clustered-engine launch vehicle capable of 1.5 million pounds of thrust.

Between August and September 1959, the Space Task Group under the direction of Robert Gilruth determined the long-term plan for NASA focused on advanced manned flight. On December 15, just over a year after NASA's inception, a document was released outlining a decade-long plan culminating in a lunar landing program sometime after 1970 – a program, not an actual landing.

The report anticipated that the first manned flights, part of Project Mercury, would orbit the Earth in 1961 or 1962. Aside from this, however, the report makes no mention of further manned missions for the remainder of the decade. Instead it focussed on unmanned planetary missions: Mars and Venus were targets, as was a soft landing on the moon and a trip to lunar orbit and back again. These missions would give NASA necessary experience it could then apply to the more daring manned missions. Flight planners needed to know how to get to the moon and how to fly in space before they could think about sending a man.

In the spring of 1960, the STG had begun preparing the guidelines for a three-man advanced spacecraft with lunar capabilities in terms of mission duration and life-support systems. In July of that year, NASA announced Apollo to representatives of American industry, in search of the subcontractors who would build the machines that would eventually take men to the moon.

It was an attractive prospect to Kennedy. If the national reaction to Freedom 7 was any indication of America's support of its space program, a lunar landing was exactly what the young President wanted. It would be the perfect project to unite a nation against any adversary, and would fortify his presidency and his legacy.

A potential lunar landing became increasingly appealing as the month of April wore on. Kennedy took a serious blow after the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs between April 17 and 19, when the United States attempted to overthrow Castro using CIA-trained Cuban exiles. At the last minute, Kennedy recalled the U.S. troops who were on hand for support, and the exiles were massacred. Kennedy's actions were questionable, and did nothing to strengthen his standing among the American people. No one wanted a President who said one thing and did another at the cost of human lives.

But as the Bay of Pigs fiasco inflamed the country and its already hostile relationship with the Soviet Union, NASA was continuing to develop its possible lunar program. On April 15, the organization had completed feasibility tests of the spacecraft and deemed the project was ready to move into stages of actual development. The timing was perfect. Apollo was coming together just when Kennedy sought a way back into the good graces of Americans. With his popularity at an all-time low, the President chose to pursue the moon program as the bold move to regain his standing and unite his country.

There were obstacles other than technology that stood in the way of realizing Apollo. There were those within the government who vehemently opposed the space program, most notably, Kennedy's science advisor Jerome Wiesner. The value of NASA had been under review since the President took office. Since the organization was established under his predecessor, President Eisenhower, its strengths and weaknesses had to be weighed relative to the new administration. Kennedy, however, never considered dissolving NASA. It was the only organization capable of getting America to space.

Kennedy first presented the moon landing proposal to the public in a special address to Congress on urgent national needs on May 25, 1961. "These are extraordinary times, and we face an extraordinary challenge", he began. He described America as a leader in freedom's cause, a role it had to maintain. He pointed to recent advancements in space, specifically Gagarin's and Shepard's flights, and how the advances were clear evidence of the role space would play in the future – an extension of the free world or an extension of a communist state. The foray into space was the beginning of what Kennedy called a "cosmic adventure", one that will have a profound impact on the minds of men everywhere who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. It came back to the difference between a democracy and communist state.

The nation had the resources and talent to put a man on the moon; it just needed to manage those resources towards this singular goal. And so, Kennedy appealed to Congress for financial support for the lunar landing program. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish," he said.

This plea for support came twenty days after Shepard's suborbital flight, at a time when NASA didn't have the technology to go to the moon by a long shot. A launch vehicle capable of putting a capsule in orbit hadn't been man-rated; it hadn't yet been proved that a man could survive the physical and psychological stresses associated with a long-duration lunar flight. Some within NASA seriously doubted that Kennedy’s ambitious goal could be met.

The president spoke openly about America's standing in space, recognizing that the Soviet Union was currently ahead and that the United States might never be able to catch up to or surpass its achievements. But the greatest loss, he said, wouldn't be to lose the race in space – a failure to try was far worse. The project would be long and expensive – it would require $24 billion, the largest expenditure ever made by any nation in peacetime, and some 400,000 people – but the gains were potentially well worth the effort.

More importantly, perhaps, was the fact that the Soviet Union didn't have lunar capabilities either. The two nations were on equal footing, and the end point of the moon was fair game. Despite the odds, Kennedy had good reason to believe that the United States could come from behind to win the space race. With a lofty goal, NASA could bide its time and spend nine years building its solid lunar program.

As he gave the nation a common goal around which to rally, Kennedy put the pressure on NASA to expedite its lunar program. The plan supported NASA's original directive: "to explore and to utilize both the atmosphere and the regions outside the earth's atmosphere for peaceful and scientific purposes, while at the same time providing research support to the Department of Defense." The peaceful and technological goals of Apollo took precedence over the still-present concerns for national security.

Reactions to the lunar proclamation were mixed within NASA, ranging from excitement to disbelief. The Mercury astronauts were particularly aware that NASA didn't have the technology for such a program. Gus Grissom called the President "nuts". Nevertheless, they stood behind the president. When Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, many within NASA were steeled in their commitment to reaching his lunar landing goal by the decade's end. Landing on the moon would be more than a political and technological and ideological victory. It would also be the best tribute to the man who made one of history’s most daring decisions.

Amy Teitel also curates the lovely blog Vintage Space. Follow her on Twitter @astVintageSpace and keep up with Vintage Space on Facebook.

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