John F. Kennedy unveiled the commitment to execute Project Apollo before Congress on 25 May 1961 in a speech on "Urgent National Needs," billed as a second State of the Union message. In the speech he asked for support to accomplish four basic goals in space exploration, only the Lunar landing is usually remembered. In addition, he asked for congressional appropriations for weather satellites, communications satellites, and the Rover nuclear propulsion rocket. Congress agreed to all of them with barely any comment. As seen in this excerpt from the speech, Kennedy couched the space program in the context of the cold war rivalry with the Soviet Union
Crew:
- Neil A. Armstrong, Commander
- Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., Lunar Module Pilot
- Michael Collins, Command Module Pilot
Back-up Crew:
- James Lovell, Backup Commander
- Fred Haise, Backup Lunar Module Pilot
- William A. Anders, Backup Command Module Pilot
Launch, Duration and Landing:
- July 16, 1969; 09:32:00 am EDT. Launch Complex 39-A Kennedy Space Center FL. No launch delays.
- 08 Days, 03 hours, 18 min, 35 seconds
- July 24, 1969; 12:50 p.m. EDT. Splashdown area 13deg 19min North and 169deg 9 min West; Splashdown at 195:18:35 MET. Crew on board U.S.S Hornet at 01:53 p.m. EDT; spacecraft aboard ship at 03:50pm.
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