National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA History Office

The Decision to Go to the Moon:

President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech

before a Joint Session of Congress

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.

High Resolution version of above photo

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.