Kennedy Museum space race exhibit is a rocket blast from the past

Dozens of visitors got a sneak peak today, including Ryon, who visited the exhibit with her husband.

"I was in high school in Virginia, and we had a big party when they landed on the moon,'' she said.

On July 20, 1969, the nation held its collective breath as Neil Armstrong stepped from the Apollo 11 capsule onto the moon's surface. The successful landing and return to Earth put the United States at the front of the space race with the Soviet Union. Kennedy never got to see the historic event. But his efforts, detailed in the exhibit, put the nation on course. A recurring theme throughout the exhibit is the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1957, the Soviets had successfully launched the Sputnik satellite and in 1961, they put a cosmonaut in orbit. Those two accomplishments clearly placed Russia at the forefront of space exploration.

But Kennedy placed the utmost importance on the space program, seeing it not only as a measure of this country's technological superiority, but also as a yardstick for world supremacy and the competing ideologies of democracy versus communism, according to the archives.

In an April 20, 1961, memo, Kennedy asked Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the chairman of the space council, if the United States had a chance of beating the Soviets in putting a laboratory in space, or circling or landing on the moon. Kennedy also wrote in the memo, "Are we working 24 hours a day on existing programs. If not, why not? If not, can you make recommendations to me as to how work can be speeded up.''

In a reply to Kennedy, Johnson wrote, "Dramatic accomplishments in space are being increasingly identified as a major indicator of world leadership.'' He also stated that despite the Soviet Union's headstart, that the United States might very well be the first country to put a man on the moon.

Then, in a speech to Congress a month later, Kennedy made the goal clear. "First, 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 for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.''

The exhibit includes a model of the Friendship 7 space capsule that carried John Glenn into orbit around Earth in 1962, a Mercury space suit and pages from Kennedy's speech at Rice University in which he announced, "We choose to go to the moon..''

The exhibit will run through spring 2010.