The 35th president of the USA, John F Kennedy, provided the impetus behind the Apollo project that landed US astronauts on the Moon. He was born on May 29, 1917, at Brookline, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He served in the navy during World War 2 and contemplated a future career as a writer or teacher. But he turned instead to politics, and in 1946 was elected on the Democrat ticket to the House of Representatives. He became a senator in 1952 and as early as 1956 began campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was chosen in 1960 and in the subsequent presidential election beat Republican Richard Nixon for the White House. He was inaugurated in January 1961, and at 43 became the youngest man ever to be elected president and the first Catholic. His vice-president was Lyndon B Johnson. Kennedy brought youth and vigour to the presidency. But the launch into space of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in April 1961, followed by an abortive CIA-backed invasion of Cuba, dealt body blows to the new image he wanted to project. Sensing that the mastery of space was likely to be a key element in terrestrial politics in the foreseeable future, he made a historic speech before Congress on May 25, 1961. "Space is open to us now," said Kennedy, "and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever Man must undertake, free men must fully share. 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 Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult to accomplish. It will not be one man going to the Moon, it will be an entire nation." JFK captured the imagination of Congress and the nation, and set in motion the most daring project in history, the Apollo project to land American astronauts on the Moon. The challenge and the timescale laid down ("before the decade is out") seemed nigh impossible, especially since as yet no American had even made it into orbit. But with the injection of massive resources and inspired innovative science and technology by NASA, Americans landed on the Moon not once, but twice, by the decade's end. Kennedy, however, did not live to see the conquest of the Moon. He was cut down by a sniper's bullet in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
