Editing Apollo program (section)

==Background==
===Origin and spacecraft feasibility studies===
{{main|Apollo spacecraft feasibility study}}

The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration in early 1960, as a follow-up to Project Mercury. While the Mercury [[space capsule|capsule]] could support only one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, Apollo would carry three. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a [[space station]], [[circumlunar trajectory|circumlunar flight]]s, and eventual crewed [[Moon landing|lunar landing]]s.

In July 1960, NASA Deputy Administrator [[Hugh L. Dryden]] announced the Apollo program to industry representatives at a series of [[Space Task Group]] conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft with a ''mission module'' cabin separate from the ''command module'' (piloting and reentry cabin), and a ''propulsion and equipment module''. On August 30, a feasibility study competition was announced, and on October 25, three study contracts were awarded to [[Convair|General Dynamics/Convair]], [[General Electric]], and the [[Glenn L. Martin Company]]. Meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies led by [[Maxime Faget]], to serve as a gauge to judge and monitor the three industry designs.<ref name="chariots_feasibility">{{harvnb|Brooks|Grimwood|Swenson|1979|loc=Ch. 1.7: [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/ch1-7.html "Feasility Studies"]. pp. 16–21.}}</ref>

===Political pressure builds===
{{main|Space Race|Sputnik crisis}}

In November 1960, [[John F. Kennedy]] was elected president after a [[John F. Kennedy 1960 presidential campaign|campaign]] that promised American superiority over the [[Soviet Union]] in the fields of [[space exploration]] and [[missile defense]]. Up to the election of 1960, Kennedy had been speaking out against the "[[missile gap]]" that he and many other senators said had developed between the Soviet Union and the United States due to the inaction of President Eisenhower.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Christopher A. |last=Preble |title="Who Ever Believed in the 'Missile Gap'?": John F. Kennedy and the Politics of National Security |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |volume=33 |number=4 |date=2003 |page=813 |doi=10.1046/j.0360-4918.2003.00085.x |jstor=27552538}}</ref> Beyond military power, Kennedy used aerospace technology as a symbol of national prestige, pledging to make the US not "first but, first and, first if, but first period".<ref>[[#Beschloss|Beschloss 1997]]</ref> Despite Kennedy's rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president. He knew little about the technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a crewed Moon landing.<ref>[[#Sidey|Sidey 1963]], pp. 117–118</ref> When Kennedy's newly appointed NASA Administrator [[James E. Webb]] requested a 30 percent budget increase for his agency, Kennedy supported an acceleration of NASA's large booster program but deferred a decision on the broader issue.<ref>[[#Beschloss|Beschloss 1997]], p. 55</ref>

On April 12, 1961, Soviet [[cosmonaut]] [[Yuri Gagarin]] became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the US House [[United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology|Committee on Science and Astronautics]] one day after Gagarin's flight, many congressmen pledged their support for a crash program aimed at ensuring that America would catch up.<ref>[[#87th Congress|87th Congress 1961]]</ref> Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on America's response to the Soviets.<ref>[[#Sidey|Sidey 1963]], p. 114</ref>

[[File:Kennedy Giving Historic Speech to Congress - GPN-2000-001658.jpg|thumb|right|[[President of the United States|President]] [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] delivers his proposal to put a man on the Moon before a joint session of [[United States Congress|Congress]], May 25, 1961.|alt=President John F. Kennedy addresses a joint session of Congress, with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn seated behind him]]
On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up.<ref name="jfkmemo">{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/6XnAYXEkkkSMLfp7ic_o-Q.aspx |title=Memorandum for Vice President |last=Kennedy |first=John F. |author-link=John F. Kennedy |date=April 20, 1961 |work=[[White House|The White House]] |publisher=[[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum]] |location=Boston, MA |type=Memorandum |access-date=August 1, 2013 |archive-date=July 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721230444/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/6XnAYXEkkkSMLfp7ic_o-Q.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Launius |first=Roger D. |title=Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/cover.html |format=PDF |access-date=August 1, 2013 |series=Monographs in Aerospace History |number=3 |date=July 1994 |publisher=NASA |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=31825096 |chapter=President John F. Kennedy Memo for Vice President, 20 April 1961 |chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }} [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/docs.htm Key Apollo Source Documents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108100815/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/docs.htm |date=November 8, 2020 }}.</ref> Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of leadership."<ref name="lbjmemo">{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/DjiWpQJegkuIlX7WZAUCtQ.aspx |title=Memorandum for the President |last=Johnson |first=Lyndon B. |author-link=Lyndon B. Johnson |type=Memorandum |date=April 28, 1961 |work=[[Office of the Vice President of the United States|Office of the Vice President]] |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum |location=Boston, MA |access-date=August 1, 2013 |archive-date=July 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701151811/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/DjiWpQJegkuIlX7WZAUCtQ.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Launius |first=Roger D. |title=Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/cover.html |format=PDF |access-date=August 1, 2013 |series=Monographs in Aerospace History |number=3 |date=July 1994 |publisher=NASA |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=31825096 |chapter=Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President, Memo for the President, 'Evaluation of Space Program,' 28 April 1961 |chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo2.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo2.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }} [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/docs.htm Key Apollo Source Documents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108100815/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/docs.htm |date=November 8, 2020 }}.</ref> His memo concluded that a crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first.<ref name="lbjmemo" />

On May 25, 1961, twenty days after the first American crewed spaceflight [[Mercury-Redstone 3|''Freedom 7'']], Kennedy proposed the crewed Moon landing in a ''Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs'':
{{blockquote|Now it is time to take longer strides—time for a great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.

...{{nbsp}}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. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.<ref name="Special Message">{{cite AV media |people=Kennedy, John F. |date=May 25, 1961 |title=Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs |medium=Motion picture (excerpt) |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx |access-date=August 1, 2013 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum |location=Boston, MA |id=Accession number: TNC:200; digital identifier: TNC-200-2}}</ref>{{efn|{{Cws |title=Full text |link=Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs|nobullet=yes}}}}
}}