John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology) Review

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John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology) ReviewI was delighted to find Dr. Logsdon's book on this subject. I've written many articles on my blog SpaceKSC.com about the true history behind President Kennedy's decision to propose the Moon mission. Dr. Logsdon's book confirmed everything I'd found in my own research, and provided a wealth of new information that deepened my understanding of the era.
What was the real reason the United States went to the Moon?
It boils down to the mistaken perception that because the Soviet Union had a rocket capable of lifting more weight, they also had a nuclear weapon capable of inflicting more damage than any American counterpart. This was totally wrong; the truth was the Soviets built a much heavier device because they didn't have American technology to build it lighter.
But when the USSR launched Sputnik I and II in 1957, and subsequent launches in the late 1950s that placed in orbit heavier payloads than U.S. capability at the time, Americans panicked and mistakenly assumed this meant the Soviets could hit the U.S. with a bigger bomb than anything in the U.S. arsenal. President Eisenhower knew better and therefore didn't give space launches much of a priority. Project Mercury, begun under the Eisenhower administration in 1958, was intended to put a single man in space, but beyond that there was no real plan or intent to explore, much less go to the Moon. It was primarily research to determine if a human could survive in space flight, most likely for military purposes because it was assumed the Soviets would probably do the same.
Enter John F. Kennedy, an ambitious presidential candidate. JFK accused the Eisenhower administration of a "missile gap" (apparently JFK or his speechwriter coined the phrase) and used that as part of his 1960 campaign as the Democratic candidate against Eisenhower's vice-president, Richard Nixon, who was the Republican candidate. When Kennedy won, he inherited the "missile gap" although it didn't really exist -- yet he was partially responsible for creating that perception.
As Logsdon writes, JFK gave space a very low priority in the early months of his administration. He directed Vice-President Lyndon Johnson to come up with alternatives that would give the U.S. the ability to show the world they had surpassed the USSR in payload lift technology. After consulting with JFK's science advisor, NASA, the Pentagon and others, the consensus was that the U.S. couldn't catch the USSR for quite some time -- unless they chose a new playing field where the Soviets didn't have the lead.
And that was a manned lunar mission.
There was no intelligence data suggesting that the Soviets had a rocket capable of lifting the weight necessary to send a man to the moon. So the idea became to take the military Saturn rocket program and build upon it for a lunar mission.
When the Soviets orbited Yuri Gagarin, that clinched it. JFK believed he had to top this achievement, hence the May 1961 proposing the lunar mission.
Logsdon's book makes it quite clear that JFK was no space visionary. His sole objective was to show the world that American technology was superior to the Soviet Union, measured by superior payload lift capability. In fact, when he visited Cape Canaveral six days before his death, Kennedy learned that the Saturn I would be the first rocket with lift capability superior to the USSR. He made it very clear to NASA and his staff they were to publicize this achievement as much as possible.
A recording exists of a heated discussion JFK had in November 1962 with NASA administrator James Webb, Bureau of the Budget staff and others. Webb was asking for more money to do other things than just Apollo. Kennedy replied, "I'm not that interested in space" and reiterated that his objective was to demonstrate superior U.S. technology, measured by lift capability, demonstrated by placing a man on the moon.
Logsdon's book should be required reading for any member of Congress who sits on a space subcommittee. For 40 years, we've dreamed of an Apollo rerun, yet Apollo was a political fluke based on a confluence of events unlikely to repeat any time soon. Our former competitors are now are space colleagues. There's no political will to spend 5% of the federal budget on space, especially in an era of trillion-dollar annual federal deficits. Most members of Congress, if they care at all about space, are primarily intested in directing pork to their districts.
We need a fundamentally new approach to space exploration. The Obama administration's commerical space approach is, in my opinion, the right answer, but that's beyond the scope of this book. But Logsdon's book is a must-read for those who mistakently believe that all it takes is for a President to march into Congress and propose a fantastic space stunt, and the dollars will flow. That's a fantasy, as today's politics show. If Congress wanted a space stunt, they would fund it themselves. JFK himself had serious doubts about the Moon program, and three times in 1963 he ordered reviews re-evaluating the wisdom of the program. So rather than waiting for a fancy speech or the members of Congress to think beyond their own self-interest, let's find a new model and leave the JFK legacy in the past.John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology) Overview

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