Once We Went to the Moon Why, and What Can We Learn from the Experience?
- Paper number
IAC-18,E4,3,6,x46941
- Author
Dr. John M. Logsdon, United States, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University
- Year
2018
- Abstract
In April-May 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy decided to send American to the Moon and return them to Earth “before this decade is out.” The reasons for Kennedy’s decision are well understood; my book John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon is an authoritative account of not only Kennedy’s decision but what he did in his short time in the White House to implement it. This paper will reflect on what can be learned from both the way the lunar landing decision was made and implemented and from its impact on the course of space affairs since. It may suggest that the decision was unfortunate in terms of the history of human spaceflight, especially it stands alone without a successful sequel. It will ask whether the “Kennedy moment” can come again, or was it a unique occurrence, never to be repeated.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)