On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy in his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, declared, “…I believe 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.”

In the address, called the Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs, Kennedy outlined his decision to send American astronauts to the Moon by the end of the decade.

The expansion of the U.S. Space Program has resulted in the development of a wide range of technology with enormous benefit to human and animal kind. Listen to the full speech.