2004-01-14

En scen vi kanske får se igen. Denna bild är från Apollo 17. Foto: NASA.

Den 25 maj 1961 ses som startskottet på ett av mänsklighetens största och svåraste projekt. För det var just den här dagen som en ung president Kennedy tillkännagav NASA mål att "landsätta en människa innan 1960 - talets slut". Nedan kan du läsa det historiska talet. Frågan är om Bush kommer att bli lika historisk?

"Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

I believe that 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 the earth.

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.

Let it be clear -- and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make -- let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs: 531 million dollars in fiscal '62 -- an estimated seven to nine billion dollars additional over the next five years.

If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all."

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