# Did JFK Provide a Deadline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647 "2019-07-26T01:50:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/1 "2019-07-26T01:50:53Z")
OK, so I keep seeing all the clips of Kennedy announcing “we choose go to the moon!” But, did he give NASA a deadline? Did Apollo 11 land ahead of JFK’s schedule? Also, was there a similar, formal push to start the Mercury Program? Of course, there was the Space Race, and the Russians were ahead. But, was the Mercury push more of a mad scramble to get someone into space…even if it didn’t orbit the earth? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/2 "2019-07-26T02:05:20Z")
Dude, it’s literally the next sentence. > [@JFK](#): > > We choose to go to the moon. 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… The impetus for the Mercury program was the successful launch of Sputnik, which led to the creation of NASA. NASA took over several experimental programs from the Air Force, which soon evolved into the Mercury program with the goal of putting a human in orbit. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/3 "2019-07-26T02:07:10Z")
Rather famously, Kennedy said publicly that the goal was to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. > [@John F. Kennedy](#): > > “I believe this nation should commit itself, before this decade is out, and returning him safely to Earth.” -“Urgent National Needs,” speech to a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961 This was more than a year before his “We choose to go to the moon” speech of September 12, 1962. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/4 "2019-07-26T02:13:35Z")
Of course, one could argue that the “sixties” don’t end until 1971 starts. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/5 "2019-07-26T02:15:48Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Of course, one could argue that the “sixties” don’t end until 1971 starts. JFK gave his famous speech in September of 1962, so one could argue “this decade” last all the way to the autumn of '72. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/6 "2019-07-26T02:26:48Z")
I do know the history and that Kennedy did say what the OP was looking for as per other posters, I have to ask here though: Was the deadline ever turned into an **official** order from the president to NASA or it remained just a guideline or became one to honor Kennedy? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/7 "2019-07-26T02:32:14Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Was the deadline ever turned into an **official** order from the president to NASA or it remained just a guideline or became one to honor Kennedy? How could you order NASA to send a man to the moon and return him safely within a given time? The best you could do would be to order them to try. “Safely” is going to depend on how well you do it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/8 "2019-07-26T02:58:55Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > How could you order NASA to send a man to the moon and return him safely within a given time? The best you could do would be to order them to try. “Safely” is going to depend on how well you do it. I asked also because in “From the Earth to the Moon” they have NASA’s men discussing how to do this impossible thing and one guy mentioned that they got a “five-page memo from LBJ pressing us to do it by 1967”. AFAIK, that deadline was not pulled out of his butt, it was based on estimations from Wernher von Braun and others about the expected progress and development. Of course that 1967 deadline was missed. So I will have to assume that the Kennedy’s deadline then remained for memorial reasons. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/9 "2019-07-26T11:36:56Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Of course, one could argue that the “sixties” don’t end until 1971 starts. If you are referring to _cardinal_ numbers, as in this case, then the 60s were from 1960 to 1969. If you are referring to _ordinal_ numbers, such as “the 6th decade of this century” then the range is 1961 to 1970. (It’s sort of like a person’s 2nd year of life being when they are age 1.) One can argue otherwise but it is a _really_ lousy argument. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/10 "2019-07-26T14:10:41Z")
I seem to remember, though I could be making this up, that the honchos in govt (who?) were prepared to conveniently move the definition of ‘decade’ should they fail by the end of 1969. So they were prepared to say they were successful if they did by Dec 1970, or if they did it a decade after Kennedy’s pronouncement. 1972ish. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/11 "2019-07-26T14:14:37Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I asked also because in “From the Earth to the Moon” they have NASA’s men discussing how to do this impossible thing and one guy mentioned that they got a “five-page memo from LBJ pressing us to do it by 1967”. > > AFAIK, that deadline was not pulled out of his butt, it was based on estimations from Wernher von Braun and others about the expected progress and development. Of course that 1967 deadline was missed. So I will have to assume that the Kennedy’s deadline then remained for memorial reasons. What? The president whose term expired in 1968 wanted them to do it before the re-election time rolled around? Obviously based only on sound science with no butt-related scheduling. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/12 "2019-07-26T14:29:17Z")
It wasn’t a deadline. It was a goal. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/13 "2019-07-26T15:02:38Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It wasn’t a deadline. It was a goal. That’s what my boss says, until I miss it. Then it turns out it was a deadline after all. :mad: It’s as “deadline” as a politician will ever get in a public policy speech. You leave your administration lots of wiggle room with weasel words in order to avoid getting castigated for missing a hard deadline, which is what the public will hear even in the softest most aspirational goal setting. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/14 "2019-07-26T15:54:53Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > What? The president whose term expired in 1968 wanted them to do it before the re-election time rolled around? Obviously based only on sound science with no butt-related scheduling. 😕 Was LBJ president when the deadline was given? Of course, even if you are referring about Kennedy, by 1968 Kennedy would not had been able to be elected for a third term if he had been alive then. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/15 "2019-07-26T16:02:51Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > So I will have to assume that the Kennedy’s deadline then remained for memorial reasons. I was watching one of the myriad documentaries about Apollo 11 the other day, and one of the NASA wonks they were interviewing pointed this out specifically- he said that basically prior to his assassination, it was a goal, but afterward, it became something more akin to a crusade (my words), in that they were doing it more as a last salute to JFK than merely to meet the arbitrary deadline. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/16 "2019-07-26T16:58:10Z")
The moon thing was easy. The important question is, did they manage to do “the other things”? ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/17 "2019-07-26T17:56:05Z")
I suspect the real goal was to beat the USSR to put a person on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/18 "2019-07-26T17:58:02Z")
Side question: Was NASA even considering going to the moon before the speech to congress? Mu understanding is that when the Apollo program first started, going to the moon wasn’t it’s goal. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/19 "2019-07-26T18:08:52Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > I suspect the real goal was to beat the USSR to put a person on the moon. This is the correct answer. The real deadline had nothing to do with Kennedy’s speech. The real deadline was “before the Soviets do it.” ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647/20 "2019-07-26T20:01:27Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The moon thing was easy. The important question is, did they manage to do “the other things”? I’d be interested in the answer to this, too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jfk-provide-a-deadline/837647.md?page=2)