May 25 1961
From The Space Library
In his second state of the Union message President Kennedy reported to Congress regarding the space program: "With the advice of the Vice President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we [United States] are strong and where we are not, where we may succeed and where we may not. Now is the 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." President Kennedy set forth an accelerated space program based upon the long-range national goals of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth; early development of the Rover nuclear rocket; speed up the use of Earth satellites for worldwide communications; and provide "at the earliest possible time a satellite system for worldwide weather observation." An additional $549 million was requested for NASA over the new administration's March budget requests; $62 million was requested for DOD for starting development of a solid-propellant booster of the Nova class.
At NASA press conference following President Kennedy's call to Congress for an accelerated space program, NASA Administrator Webb pointed out that the long-range and difficult task of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade offered a chance to beat Russia.
X-15 flown to record speed of 3,300 miles per hour by NASA test pilot, Joseph A. Walker, at Edwards Air Force Base.
Kaman 11-43–B Huskie helicopter flown to claimed altitude record of 25,814 feet by Capt. W. C. McMeen (USAF), bettering Russian record of 24,491 feet established on March 26, 1960.
Prerecorded voice message successfully transmitted from NRL to BTL via [Echo I]], the quality of the transmission being virtually as good as previous experiments.
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