Space policy

John Logsdon - Space Policy, JFK, and Space Exploration

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• published: 06 Dec 2010
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Another lecture in IHMC's award winning lecture series. http://www.ihmc.us May 25, 2011 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's speech to a joint session of Congress announcing his decision to send Americans to the Moon "before this decade is out." Kennedy not only made this momentous decision just four months after becoming president; in the thirty months remaining in his tragically shortened time in the White House, he several times reviewed its wisdom, even as he approved the peaceful but war-like mobilization of resources required to achieve the goal he had set for the nation. In the months just before he was assassinated, Kennedy both proposed turning the Apollo lunar landing program into a joint effort with the Soviet Union and authorized a top-level review of the program's goal and schedule. This talk, based on Dr. Logsdon's forthcoming book with the same title, will review JFK's involvement with Apollo. It will assess the results of Apollo, both in terms of the reasons that led President Kennedy to approve it and in terms of its impact on the U.S. space program over the past four decades. Dr. Logsdon is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to his leaving active faculty status in June 2008, he was on the faculty of the George Washington University for 38 years; before that he taught at the Catholic University of America for four years. He was the founder in 1987 and long-time Director of GW's Space Policy Institute. He is also a faculty member of the International Space University. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Xavier University (1960) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University (1970). Dr. Logsdon's research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities. He is author of The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest and the forthcoming John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon and is general editor of the eight-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. He has written numerous articles and reports on space policy and history. Dr. Logsdon was a member of the NASA Advisory Council from 2005-2009 and remains a member of the Council's Exploration Committee. He is a member of the Academic Council of the International Space University. From September 2008-August 2009, he held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. In 2003, he served as a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He has also served on the Vice President's Space Policy Advisory Board and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council. He is a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Public Service, Distinguished Public Service, and Public Service Medals, the 2005 John F. Kennedy Award from the American Astronautical Society, and the 2006 Barry Goldwater Space Educator Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.