Let's go back again to President Kennedy's iconic words spoken September 12, 1962.

President Kennedy announced the daring dream to put Americans on a moon before the decade

is out.

As humanity watched, the question on everyone's lips, how?

But if I were to say my fellow citizens that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away

from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall, a length of

this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable

of standing heat and stresses, several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted

together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed

for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission to an

unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere

at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, pausing heat about half that of the temperature

of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all this, and do all this, and do

it right, and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold.

This mission would require untold amounts of work, creativity and innovation, but the bedrock

upon which every inch of it must be constructed was the boldness to believe it was possible

in the first place.

To say this task was massive is truly a gross understatement.

At the time of Kennedy's speech, NASA identified 10,000 separate tasks that had to be accomplished

if they were going to put a man on the moon.

This goal was bigger and big, in fact it was viewed by many as impossible.

In short, NASA was setting up to run a marathon when they hadn't even taken their first step,

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