60 years ago today, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress his goal to initiate a project “to put a man on the Moon”—and return him safely to Earth—before the end of the decade.

 

NASA was ramped-up with funding to launch the Apollo program, and Kennedy’s goal was achieved months before the deadline, on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped down into the lunar dirt. Though the Democratic president never lived to see the historic moon landing, because he was assassinated two years later, Kennedy’s leadership and long-term vision changed NASA in fundamental, enduring ways.