Kennedy proposed a joint Soviet mission to the moon
President John F. Kennedy suggests that the Soviet Union and the United States work together to launch an expedition to the moon. Both the Soviets and many Americans were taken off guard by the suggestion.
John F. Kennedy declared that he was determined to defeat the Soviet Union in the "space race" immediately after being elected president in 1961. Russian and American scientists have been competing to achieve the next advancement in space travel since the Soviet Union launched the tiny satellite Sputnik into orbit around the earth in 1957. During the Cold War, space became a new frontier. Kennedy raised the stakes in 1961 by promising that the US would send a man to the moon before the end of the decade.
Kennedy concluded his speech by saying: "There is potential for further cooperation, for greater collaborative endeavors, in a sphere where the United States and the Soviet Union have a distinctive capacity – space. A cooperative moon mission is one of these options, he continued.
The president questioned the need for parallel initiatives between the US and USSR that would involve "duplication of research, construction, and expense." He proposed a coordinated set of space missions, which, if carried out, "would demand a new strategy to the Cold War," according to him.
