“We choose to go to the Moon” Speech
Item #M11851 – Mint sheet honoring Kennedy’s role in the Moon landing
On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered one of his most famous and stirring speeches, to generate support for the Apollo program.
The Space Race began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite. Originally, the Soviet Union planned to launch a much larger satellite, known to its designers as “Object D.” However, the telemetry system was not functioning as needed, and a lower than expected impulse of the launch rocket delayed the project. Fearing that the Americans would launch a satellite first, a decision was made to develop a much simpler rocket concurrently. Sputnik was smaller than a basketball and carried only a radio transmitter instead of multiple scientific instruments. Object D would be launched successfully as Sputnik-3 on May 15, 1958.
