Proximate Objectives

The objective Kennedy set, seemingly audacious to the layman, was quite proximate.

Kennedy's 1961 speech on the issue remains a model of clarity.   In his speech, Kennedy diagnosed the problem as world opinion.   He said, "The dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on  the minds of men everywhere."  He argued that the Soviet Union's strategy of focusing its much poorer technological resources on space was leveraging, to its advantage, the world's natural interest in these out-of-this-world accomplishments.  He argued that being first to land people on the moon would be a dramatic affirmation of American leadership.  

The United States had, ultimately, much greater resources to draw upon; it was a matter of allocating and coordinating them.  Importantly, the moon mission had been judged feasible.  Kennedy did much more than point at the objectives; he laid out the steps along the way--unmanned exploration, larger booster rockets, parallel development of liquid and solid fuel rockets, and the construction of a landing vehicle.

The objective was feasible because engineers knew how to design and build rockets and spacecraft.  Much of the technology had already been developed as part of the ballistic missile program.  And this objective was intensely strategic.  It grew directly out of Kennedy's question "How can we beat the Russians in space?"  The objective Kennedy set, seemingly audacious to the layman, was quite proximate. It was a matter marshaling the resources and political will. 

ACTION POINT: Pursue proximate objectives by marshaling resources and will.