JFK And This Week’s Moon Landing

President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961 – just four months into his presidency – and said, “I believe that 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.”

Neil Armstrong took that “one small step” and “one giant leap” on July 20, 1969 – nearly six years after JFK’s death.

The United States returned to the moon this week when a privately-built spacecraft named Odysseus landed near the lunar south pole on Thursday, February 22 – more than a half century later, and while this was an unmanned mission, it was no less of a big deal than when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Apollo module.

Why? Because this latest landing begins the program to land the next human on the surface of the moon sometime in 2026. And why is that important, given this lifeless ball of rocks and dust? With no atmosphere and only one-sixth the gravitational pull of earth, the moon is an excellent place as a launch point for future exploration of deeper space. Stay tuned.

The public-private partnership

Equally notable is that this craft – Odysseus – was built by Intuitive Machines, a private sector Texas-based company, demonstrating what I’ve been writing about for more than 20 years, that much of humanity’s success in the 21^st century and beyond will be paved upon the path of the public-private sector partnership.

Said Bill Nelson, the Nasa administrator, “Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the US has returned to the moon. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company, an American company, launched and led the voyage up there.”

JFK’s prophecy and legacy

Look at JFK’s choice of positive words as he pronounced his vision: believe, commit, achieving, goal, before, landing, returning, safely. Twenty-seven percent of the words in that one sentence have a positive valence – even out of context.

So powerful were his positive words – and so well-crafted – that when he warned, in the very next sentence, that “No single space project in this period will be … so difficult or expensive to accomplish,” it didn’t matter. That challenge became merely a prerequisite, as the inspiration was already there. And, of course, we know the positive results, the latest of which are still in the headlines.

It’s interesting to speculate what would have happened had JFK begun with the “difficult and expensive” part. Would Congress – and the people of America – have been as receptive? Would the speech have been as effective? Would the results have been there? Would the influence of his positive leadership have sustained that long after his death?

This week’s moon landing – and the immediate prospects to follow – continue to answer those questions. Leadership, we see, outlives leaders.