On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed to Congress to send a man to the moon
Washington, D.C. May 25, 1961
JFK (AP) (CBS) President John F. Kennedy's proposal to the go to the moon was the ninth of nine sections of his speech that day to Congress:
Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. Since early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong and where we are not, where we may succeed and where we may not. Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.
I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment. This gives promise of some day providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself. John F. Kennedy
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MEDIA ADVISORY : M08-069NASA Updates Target Launch Date for Next Space Shuttle FlightWASHINGTON -- NASA is targeting May 31 as the launch date for shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission to deliver the large Japanese Kibo Pressurized Module to the International Space Station. The liftoff time is approximately 5:01 p.m. EDT.
NASA decided to reschedule Discovery's target launch date from May 25 to May 31 after shipment of the mission's external fuel tank from its assembly plant at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Florida was delayed by weather. The tank arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 26.
Additionally, NASA elected to move the liftoff date in order to avoid having the launch team work through the Memorial Day weekend.
The official launch date for Discovery will be determined during the standard Flight Readiness Review held approximately two weeks before launch.
Discovery's mission is the second of three flights that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The Japanese Pressurized Module will be the station's largest science laboratory, measuring 37 feet long and 14 feet in diameter, about the size of a large tour bus. The shuttle also will deliver the lab's robotic arm system that support operations outside of Kibo. The lab's logistics module, which was installed in a temporary location during STS-123 in March, will be attached to the new lab.
Mark Kelly will command the seven-member crew, which includes Pilot Ken Ham, Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Greg Chamitoff. Chamitoff will replace Expedition 16/17 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman and remain aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 17 crew. Reisman will return to Earth with the STS-124 crew.
By Jeremy Hsu Staff Writer posted: 14 May 2008 07:58 am ET
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander aims to not flame out when it descends to the arctic surface of the red planet in less than two weeks.
The new Martian probe will try to avoid the fate of its crashed predecessor, NASA's Mars Polar Lander, when deploying a parachute and braking rockets to slow its plunge and make a successful three-point landing.
"This is not a trip to grandma's house," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky."
Phoenix managers refer to the probe's descent as "seven minutes of terror" that will define the future of the spacecraft's $420-million mission. The robotic arm-equipped spacecraft is due to land near the Martian north pole on May 25 to study nearby water ice and determine if the region was once habitable for primitive life.
"Hopefully the outcome will be different from the Mars Polar Lander outcome," said Rob Grover, NASA engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Mars Polar Lander (MPL) entered the Martian atmosphere near the planet's south pole in 1999, but a software glitch caused a premature shutdown of the spacecraft's engines. It crashed while falling at 50 mph (80 kph) instead of making a soft landing. NASA has worked since then to ensure Phoenix doesn't suffer the same fate.
"The number one cause was the faulty indicator on touchdown sensor," Grover told SPACE.com,adding that the sensor falsely told the MPL that it had already landed.
Engineers have since corrected the software issue and made the overall system more robust to avoid future errors.
"We feel like we have adequately tested this vehicle," Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein said in a Tuesday mission briefing, but added that there is always room for the unexpected. "We fire 26 pyrotechnic events in the last 14 minutes of this vehicle, and every one of those has to go off as planned...We're very hopeful for success on the 25th."
:On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the payload changeout room on the rotating service structure at center is open and ready to receive the STS-124 mission payload inside the approaching payload canister at far left. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett › View High-res Image
Space shuttle Discovery is set to complete the final leg of its preflight journey May 3, making the 3.4-mile trek from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. Perched atop the mobile launcher platform, the shuttle assembly will roll out to the oceanside launch complex atop the massive crawler-transporter at less than one mile an hour.
The canister carrying the STS-124 payloads arrived at the launch pad April 29. Primary payloads are the tour-bus-sized Japanese Experiment Module-Pressurized Module and the lab's robotic arm system. The components will be installed in the orbiter's payload bay after the shuttle arrives at the pad.
The STS-124 crew members, commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, are set to arrive at Kennedy on May 6 for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. The three-day event concludes May 9 with a full dress rehearsal of the launch countdown.
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