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Reading copy of the President's Special Message to Congress

Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Boston, United States

Three weeks after Freedom 7 safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, President Kennedy stood before Congress to deliver a special message on "urgent national needs." He asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth." President Kennedy settled upon this dramatic goal as a means of focusing and mobilizing the nation's lagging space efforts.

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John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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