Now it was Kennedy's turn to be embarrassed. had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Kennedy had made use of the 1950s Soviet successes in space in his election campaign, claiming that under Eisenhower and the Republicans, the U.S. He also gave Wernher Von Braun's team approval to start work on rocket designs they had been proposing for many years.
counterpart a share in the Soviet foreign aid program which provided technical assistance to backwards nations.Įisenhower responded by forming NASA in 1958 to control all U.S. A Soviet delegate to the United Nations offered his U.S. Vanguard's failure became an international joke, with the story appearing in newspapers under names such as Flopnik, Stayputnik, Kaputnik, and Dudnik. Eisenhower had ordered Vanguard to be launched earlier than planned in response to the Soviet success with their Sputnik satellite project. Vanguard rocket had failed spectacularly in a live broadcast, exploding a few seconds after launch. These embarrassments followed a much earlier embarrassment: the U.S. And worst of all, on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space. They were the first to send instruments into space. The Soviets were the first to orbit the Earth. The Bay of Pigs incident was internationally embarrassing. Kennedy was a symbol of a new era, a man who could move the country forward after years of stagnation.īut by May 1961 the gloss had started to wear off his presidency. The man he succeeded, Eisenhower, was at that time the oldest president. After all, he was young, he was charismatic and he had an optimistic vision on his side. He started his term in January 1961 with a confidence that he would head an administration which would achieve great things, both domestically and in foreign affairs. election he was the youngest person to be elected President. President John F Kennedy, address to Congress on No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. 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 Earth.
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