In his 1961 inaugural address and in later speeches, Kennedy framed space exploration as a national priority. His famous challenge—“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”—set an ambitious deadline and rallied public and Congressional support.

On September 12, 1962, at Rice University, he delivered the speech “We choose to go to the Moon,” in which he further explained why the nation should commit the resources and will to achieve a lunar landing.