Episode 1 - How it happened (with Roger Launius)

**Casey Dreier** (0:00)
This is A Political History of Apollo, a limited series podcast from The Planetary Society, exploring the reasons why the United States decided to send humans to the moon, and why the nation pulled back after landing only six times. I'm Casey Dreier, The Planetary Society's Chief Advocate and Senior Space Policy Advisor. I'm going to be joined by some of the world's leading experts in space policy and history in interviews originally broadcast as part of our monthly show, Planetary Radio, Space Policy Edition. We grouped these interviews together in an attempt to tell a fuller story about Project Apollo, to get beyond the flags and footprints we so often see, and look at the deeper issues like the political prehistory of the space age, the Cold War, the political opposition and cultural impacts to the nation, and even look at the Soviet side of the space race to the moon. The show is a production of the Planetary Society, a non-profit dedicated to space science and exploration. So if you like what you hear, please consider joining or donating at planetary.org.
This is episode 1, Why It Happened.
You've heard this clip before. It's probably the most famous line ever said about the Apollo program. And I almost didn't include it because it's been played so much. But it contains an important and I believe overlooked insight into why Apollo happened. Why the United States decided to marshal enormous sums of money and resources to a moon landing in a single decade. So here it is, I'm going to play it, President John F. Kennedy from a speech given at Rice University, September of 1962

**John F. Kennedy** (1:57)
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too.

**Casey Dreier** (2:25)
I still get chills listening to that. It's a great speech. But serving to organize and measure the best of our abilities is not why Apollo happened. That was a side benefit. The reason why Apollo happened I think is nicely captured in that first couplet that sounds first almost like a tautology. That part where he says, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
When Kennedy announced the Moon Landing, the United States was locked in a global ideological conflict with the Soviet Union. This is the Cold War. But that's part of it. The political competition between these two nations required something to compete for. In this case, it was the political identity, the hearts and minds of other nations, particularly the new nations emerging from centuries of colonial occupation at the hands of the European powers. These European powers had recently pulled back and functionally collapsed after World War II, so these nations were choosing their future direction really for the first time. Both the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to sway these nations to choose their way of life through direct and indirect means. The space race was one of the indirect means, meant to demonstrate the technological superiority of one ideological system over another. Launching spacecraft and then people into space was easy to understand but obviously very hard to do. It cost money and it required a really advanced industrial base with a highly skilled and highly educated workforce to enable it. In this sense, space exploration can really be seen as a proxy for a nation's technological and organizational capability, which translates very directly into their capability for warfare and self-defense.
The United States lost the initial parts of the space race, first with Sputnik and then with the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961
In response, President Kennedy effectively moved the goalposts. The United States would land men on the Moon, not just orbit them in space. Not because it was easy, but because it was hard. That was the point.
How a moonshot came to be the answer in the space race to this problem and why it was so important at the time is why I spoke with Dr. Roger Launius, the guest on today's episode. He's the former chief historian of NASA and currently the principal at Launius Historical Services. His latest book is Apollo's Legacy, Perspectives on the Moon Landings, is available on amazon.com and other retailers. Dr. Launius, I want to thank you again for joining us here in the Space Policy Edition.

**Roger Launius** (5:30)
My pleasure. It's nice to be here.

**Casey Dreier** (5:32)