HUFFINGTON POST: …And when talking about the proposed moon project with the chief and deputy administrators of NASA in November 1962, JFK made it clear that the moon had to be their top priority, despite their desires to conduct other research in space.
“This is important for political reasons, international political reasons, and for, this is, whether we like it or not, a race. If we get second to the moon, it’s nice, but it’s like being second anytime… the policy ought to be that this is the top priority program of the agency and one of the two, except for defense, the top priority of the United States government…
We’re talking about fantastic expenditures which wreck our budget… the only justification for it, in my opinion… is because we hope to beat them and demonstrate that starting behind as we did, by a couple of years, by God, we passed them.” … (more)
