Published March 7, 2019

The first in an occasional series

The podium erected on the 50-yard line of Rice University’s football stadium in September 1962 was makeshift and temporary, but President John F. Kennedy’s call to action on that sunny Houston day permanently changed the world.

In just 33 minutes, Kennedy rallied the nation with dreams of space exploration that launched an all-out sprint to the moon.

“We choose to go to the moon,” he told the crowd of 40,000. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Read the full text of President Kennedy’s moonshot speech here.

The United States had been dabbling in space technologies for about five years at the time — Kennedy had even expressed his moon goal to Congress the year before — after the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 sparked fears that one of the country’s biggest adversaries had gotten the upper hand technologically and militarily.

About this series Nearly 50 years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. The July 20, 1969, moon landing changed the world and forever changed Houston. Our "Mission Moon" project will explore how the country came together to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the lunar surface by 1970, NASA's bold missions – and crippling tragedies – since that historic day, the future of space exploration and the fate of Houston as America's "Space City." Read our entire series here.

Kennedy’s speech, and the funding that backed it, put an end to that. Less than seven years later, on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the first footprints on the moon.

Now, in this 50th anniversary year, the lunar landing remains one of humankind’s greatest achievements, inspiring decades of scientific successes that have continued to improve life on Earth.

The United States has landed probes on Mars, kept humans living in space continually for nearly 20 years and sent a spacecraft to the Sun.

In Houston, where the nation’s astronaut corps lives and trains at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the impacts are even more prominent. Seemingly overnight, the Clear Lake area was propelled into the Space Age: hundreds of thousands of the country’s greatest minds have flocked to the area to work for the space agency, local businesses and nearby schools have flourished and new jobs were created.

Without the lunar landing, there might never have been computer microchips, solar panels or GPS navigation.

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But NASA’s legacy hasn’t been all roses and celebrations. Political whims and social pressures in recent years have stalled the space agency human exploration program as it struggles with changing goals and a lack of adequate funding.

And now, as Americans gear up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of what Armstrong famously called a “giant leap for mankind,” the agency prepares to land on the moon once again. This time, to stay.

“As a country and a global community, we will celebrate the greatest achievements of the Apollo era this year,” Space Foundation CEO Thomas Zelibor said in January. “But as we celebrate these past triumphs, we need to be mindful that the moon landing was just a down payment on the opportunities that are unfolding today.”

The timing of Kennedy’s 1962 speech in Houston couldn’t have been better. Two men — John Glenn and Scott Carpenter — each had left Earth’s atmosphere and circled the planet just months before as part of the country’s first human spaceflight program, Project Mercury.

President John F Kennedy and his motorcade are greeted with "Welcome President Kennedy" sign during his visit to Houston on Sept. 21, 1962. President John F Kennedy and his motorcade are greeted with "Welcome President Kennedy" sign during his visit to Houston on Sept. 21, 1962. Photo: Houston Chronicle File Photo: Houston Chronicle File Image 1 of / 16 Caption Close Mission Moon: Apollo 11 lunar landing leaves lasting legacy 50 years later 1 / 16 Back to Gallery

‘Echo across the decades’

But just as the Soviets beat the U.S. to launching the first satellite, they had beaten Americans to orbiting Earth, too.

It was time for America to step up its game.

“For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace,” Kennedy said during his 1962 speech. “We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.”

Gene Kranz, arguably the most famous flight director in NASA history, reflected on the impact of Kennedy’s speech on the space program in his 2000 book, “Failure is Not an Option.”

“Kennedy’s bold commitment to put a man on the moon had set America on a faster track,” said Kranz, who was working in Mission Control on the Mercury program at the time. “I listened closely to his speech feeling that I was ready to do whatever it took to turn his great dream into reality.”

The next seven years were a whirlwind of daring firsts and nail-biting close calls. Project Mercury successfully completed its six crewed missions by 1963, proving that humans could orbit the Earth, function in space and splash down on Earth safely.

MISSION MOON: Follow our coverage of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing

Project Gemini started flying crewed missions two years later in 1965. Over the course of just one year, America proved that it could connect two capsules in space, float outside the relative safety of the spacecraft and survive for several days without Earth’s atmosphere.

“Daily we could see progress,” Kranz wrote. “I was confident the tools would be there, but I was concerned that we wouldn’t be smart enough or at least have sufficient hands-on experience to use them well operationally.”

Then came Project Apollo's crewed flights, which started with the fiery death of three astronauts in 1967 but ended in success, effectively bringing the U.S.-Soviet space race to a close. When Armstrong and Aldrin stepped foot on the moon in 1969, Americans reveled in the victory.

About 600 million people — one-fifth of the world’s population at the time — watched and listened to the lunar landing. And by the end of the Apollo program in 1972, 10 other men had followed suit.

The U.S. hasn’t been back since, but the events sparked a scientific revolution that has followed the U.S. over the last half-century.

“Kennedy’s words were to echo across the decades,” Kranz wrote in his book. “And we and the rest of the country found out a noble cause that brings out a nation’s best qualities.”

Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins — the third crewmate who piloted the command module but never touched the moon — returned home to parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and, of course, Houston. Later, they made a 22-nation world tour.

‘Greatest week’ in history

“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since creation,” then-President Richard M. Nixon said when greeting the crew members upon their return.

The moon landing was a win for the U.S., which had officially beaten the Soviets in the space race and put the nation’s technological prowess on full display. Invigorated scientists immediately began talking about building a habitat on the moon, conducting human missions to Mars and exploring even deeper into the cosmos.

But it also was a win for the world, uniting people of all races, religions and backgrounds. Humankind had explored farther than ever before, and that meant something.

“The flight of Apollo 11 was met with an ecstatic reaction around the globe, as everyone shared in the success of the astronauts,” according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “All nations having regular diplomatic relations with the United States sent their best wishes in recognition of the success of the mission.”

LISTEN: NASA delays Apollo 9 mission after astronauts catch a cold

By 1975, the U.S. and the Soviets were publicly collaborating, bringing together their respective spacemen in the stars through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. It was one of many programs over the decades that have brought together nations in humankind’s quest for the cosmos, an effort that culminated in the construction of the International Space Station in 1998. Today, 15 nations have a direct hand in the space station, which has housed a continuous cycle of astronauts for almost 20 years.

Technological achievements also dramatically increased thanks to the Apollo program. The software used in the Apollo capsules is the distant predecessor to the devices used in credit card transactions. Firefighters wear liquid-cooled clothing based on the jumpsuits astronauts wore under their spacesuits. Even today’s computer microchip exists because of Apollo, according to ComputerWorld, an online business technology publication.

In Houston, the human spaceflight program put the city on the map. Astronauts have been living and training for decades in Clear Lake — home to the Johnson Space Center — bringing brain power and business to an area that half a century ago had just one stop light.

But a lot has changed over the past 50 years and support for the space program, especially financial support, is not what it used to be.

The lunar landing’s 50th anniversary year began in January with NASA’s doors shuttered and groundbreaking work stalled.

‘Risk-averse society’

Key federal agencies were largely closed from Dec. 22 through Jan. 25 — the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — because of a political battle over a proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. And that meant NASA had to stop all research deemed nonessential, including work on the module that will test the emergency systems for the spacecraft being built to take humans back to the moon and the SOFIA telescope used to observe transient events that happen over oceans from its mount on a Boeing 747 aircraft.

EXPERTS: Government shutdowns could drive NASA employees to the private sector

It’s just one of the many ways political whims have left NASA struggling to develop a cohesive strategy for space exploration.

The mission has changed across presidential administrations. In the 1960s and 1970s, reaching the moon — and beating the Russians there — was the prime directive. Though punctuated by Kennedy’s speech, the goal of winning the Space Race stretched from Dwight Eisenhower to Lyndon B. Johnson and then Nixon.

“Kennedy was willing to take a risk and it wasn’t just a technological risk, it was also an economic risk, a political risk and that took initiative. It took leadership,” Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told a crowd at Space Center Houston, the museum side of Johnson, in October.

Today, presidential administrations can’t or won’t agree on a goal for NASA. President George W. Bush wanted the U.S. to go back to the moon as a stepping stone for Mars. President Barack Obama disagreed, altering the agency’s course to focus on sending astronauts to an asteroid and then near Mars.

President Donald Trump did another about-face when he took office in 2017, pushing for a return to the moon and, eventually, a human mission to Mars.

Policy fluctuations “can be difficult to weather,” JSC Director Mark Geyer previously told the Chronicle. “It can cause fluctuations in the space program and that’s hard if you’re trying to move the country forward. But that’s life, so you need to develop strategies to navigate that.”

Funding also has been an issue for the agency. Kennedy’s speech not only inspired the country to strive for the moon, it also brought with it a significant amount of money.

Between 1960 and 1973, NASA spent $19.4 billion on the Apollo program, according to a 2009 Congressional Research Service analysis.

That’s the equivalent of $116.5 billion in 2019 dollars.

CANCELED TOO SOON: NASA's recent woes took root with loss of space shuttle program

NASA’s yearly budget in 2019 sits at about $21 billion and is divvied up into many different pots, not just human exploration. The agency does unmanned exploration, climate change missions and even educational outreach.

Cunningham believes the shortage of funds is an expression of society’s fear of taking risks. Back in the 1960s, he said, NASA knew human lives were on the line and they managed those risks accordingly.

Now, he said, society is obsessed with operating risk-free.

“We live in a risk-averse society. It’s more bureaucratic and less efficient,” he said. “Today, our grand aspirations are usually at the mercy of politicians. Our focus is almost exclusively on our survival.”

During the 2019 State of Space event in January, Zelibor uttered a phrase that would have shocked the scientific community half a century ago.

‘Partnerships are key’

“No one can do space alone,” he said at the Washington, D.C. event. “Partnerships are the key to our collective successes.”

This approach to space travel has increasingly been a focus — first with other countries as highlighted by the International Space Station and now, with commercial companies like Boeing and SpaceX.

"NEW ERA OF SPACEFLIGHT:" SpaceX first commercial crew test flight successfully docked to International Space Station

And Trump’s plans to return to the moon as a stepping stone to Mars involves heavy cooperation from both.

“These partnerships and diversity also bring strength, capabilities and promise,” Zelibor said. “Not just for what it enables us to do today, but more important what it will enable us to do in the future.”

Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget provides funds to develop the foundation for the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, which would give the U.S. “a strategic presence in the lunar vicinity that will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us further explore the moon and its resources and translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.”

OFFICIALS: NASA could see a 5 percent budget cut next year

NASA also partnered with the Israeli government in sending a probe to the moon in late February. Both countries have signed an agreement stating they will “cooperatively utilize” the probe — built by Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL — to study the moon’s magnetic fields.

And through an effort funded in 2014, SpaceX and Boeing are set to become the first commercial companies to send crews to the International Space Station, eliminating the nation’s dependence on Russia to ferry astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory. The first, crewed test flights for both companies are scheduled for later this year — launching NASA astronauts from American soil for the first time in almost a decade.

NASA also is relying on commercial companies to build its lunar landers, which they hope will launch as early as this year but no later than Dec. 31, 2021. The space agency in November tapped nine companies, including Houston-based Intuitive Machines, to build the moon landers.

READ MORE: Houston-based company among nine tapped by NASA to build moon landers

The commercial landers are meant to replace a rover that NASA abruptly canceled in April after sinking more than four years and $100 million into it. The rover, known as Resource Prospector, was being built by the space agency to find water on the moon.

With the help of commercial companies and international partners, the future of human space exploration is looking bright for the American space agency.

Looking ahead

“This year, when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, we’re actually going back to the moon — this time to stay,” Bridenstine said during a media roundtable in Washington, D.C. in February. “We’re doing it in a way we’ve never done before and we’re taking international and commercial partners with us.”

Working with partners will continue to be crucial for the space agency in the years ahead, he later told the Chronicle, because it is key for “peaceful exploration and scientific discovery.”

TEST YOURSELF: Take the "Moon Mission" history quiz.

“From the early days of Apollo-Soyuz, which was executed at the height of the Cold War, to the International Space Station where more than a dozen countries have been working together for more than two decades, space exploration provides a way to create new allies and solidify future cooperation and collaboration with old friends,” Bridenstine said.

This year, NASA hopes to see American astronauts launch from American soil on American rockets for the first time since 2011. It hopes to see the first commercial lunar lander launch to the moon, potentially carrying experiments from the agency, universities or commercial companies. And it hopes to be well on its way to having plans finalized for the architecture of a mini-space station orbiting the moon.

Zelibor said the annivesary year of the moon landing could be another milestone year for the agency.

“I think 2019 is going to be a crossroads year for the entire space community,” he said. “Today, we’re at the cusp of a new venture to the moon and beyond. These missions will carry an even more diverse group of people to do even bolder things that we will be celebrating for generations to come.”

Alex Stuckey joined the Chronicle as the NASA, science and environment reporter in 2017. She is a 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner for her work at the Salt Lake Tribune on how Utah colleges handle reports of sexual assault. That same year, she was named a Livingston Finalist and, several years prior, won an Investigative Reporters and Editors award for a story on the failed reporting of drug seizures in Ohio that resulted in a seven-year jail sentence for former Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly. Contact her at alex.stuckey@chron.com. Follow her on Twitter at @alexdstuckey.

Video courtesy NASA

Design by Jordan Rubio and Jasmine Goldband

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