The Decision to Go to The Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest

This book documents President John F. Kennedy’s decision-making in 1961 to embark on Project Apollo to land a man on the Moon, a program that achieved that goal in eight years. He was driven to respond to the Soviet Union’s early successes in space, particularly the orbiting of the satellite Sputnik, and to uphold U.S. national prestige and global influence. His administration concluded the project was feasible without radical technological breakthroughs, would be supported by a political consensus, and would further America’s broader Cold War goals. John Logsdon’s case study of Project Apollo shows how a state can intelligently assess and commit to an enormous and complex undertaking at the frontiers of science and engineering.