But Because They Are Hard

“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”

On April 12, 1961, the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin into orbit.  So, when Alan Shepard lifted off from Cape Canaveral on the fifth of May, his suborbital flight looked like second place—again.  And Mercury did not seem to be a long distance runner. 

     THE DATE:            May 25, 1961

     THE PLACE:          Washington, DC

     THE SETTING:      Capitol Hill

     THE OCCASION:  A joint session of Congress to hear a Special Message on Urgent National 

                                     Needs delivered by the President of the United States

     “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.”  

     It was hardly a sure thing.  For fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience does not a launch pad of confidence make, as shown by an American physicist when asked what we would find on the moon. 

     “Russians.” 

     Nevertheless, the United States persevered.  

     On September 12, 1962, the President spoke at Rice University. 

     “We choose to go to the moon—we choose to go to the moon.  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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.  

     “It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the Office of the Presidency….   

     “To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight.  But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead.” 

     With Gemini came spacewalks, longer flights, and rendezvous and docking—a vital part of what was to follow.  Thus, within a decade we did make up, and now it was time to move ahead. 

     THE DATE:            July 20, 1969

     THE PLACE:          A pale disk in the sky

     THE SETTING:      The lunar module

     THE OCCASION:  Final approach 

     It was hardly a sure thing. 

     Aldrin gives the readout as Armstrong switches to manual and steers the spacecraft beyond the       boulders around West Crater. 

     “Four forward.  Four forward.  Drifting to the right a little.  Twenty feet, down a half.”

     “Thirty seconds,” says Capcom regarding the remaining fuel.

     “Drifting forward just a little bit; that’s good.”  

     The next words are garbled, and there is a pause before he speaks again.

     “Contact Light.”

     “Shutdown,” says Armstrong.

     “OK.  Engine stop,” says Aldrin.

     Then they go through the procedures.

     “ACA out of Detent.  Auto,” says Aldrin.

     “Out of Detent.  Auto,” says Armstrong.

     “Mode Control, both Auto.  Descent Engine Command Override, Off.  Engine Arm, Off.  Four-one-three is in,” says Aldrin. 

     “We copy you down, Eagle.”

     “Engine arm is off,” Armstrong confirms before responding to Capcom.  “Houston, Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed.”

     “Roger, Twan…Tranquility.  We copy you on the ground.  You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.  We’re breathing again.  Thanks a lot.”  

     It was hardly a sure thing.  The inevitable rarely is.  After the fact, things are easy—and talk is cheap.  Yet when some had doubts, there was one who did not. 

     The President took us aboard Apollo at Rice University on September 12, 1962. 

     “…I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.  But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold.” 

     In the beginning, before leaving to address Congress, President Kennedy spoke to his family and staff  in the Oval Office. 

     “I firmly expect this commitment to be kept.  And if I die before it is, all you here now just remember when it happens I will be sitting up there in heaven in a rocking chair just like this one, and I’ll have a better view of it than anybody.”  (JFK’s Last Hundred Days by Thurston Clarke, 150)

(c)2019 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.

In Memory of Lawrence E. Bromery

1928-2006

Goddard Space Flight Center 

Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961    [“and the glow from that fire”] 

https://youtu.be/IMH139TOQ8M    [Special Message on Urgent National Needs]

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKPOF/040/JFKPOF-040-001

[Address at Rice University--text] 

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-at-rice-university-on-the-nations-space-effort    [film] 

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html    [the landing] 

Capcom – capsule communicator