Sept. 15, 1964 - President Johnson paid a surprise visit to the John F. Kennedy Space Center today and placed his candidacy squarely in support of the nation’s space program.
“We cannot be second in space and first in the world,” he said.
Without an overt political utterance, he gave his personal advocacy to interplanetary exploration, which has been deprecated by Senator Barry Goldwater.
The occasion was a sudden barnstorming flight into north Florida that brought Johnson into the same region where Goldwater was also wooing Florida’s 14 electoral votes.
Johnson, who dropped in after an appearance before the International Association of Machinists at Miami, was at the space center about 90 minutes.
In that time, he climbed the ladder to the operating level of a blockhouse control center, peered through a periscope at a Saturn rocket being groomed for flight Friday, donned a sterile white cap and smock to inspect space probes being checked out for flights past Mars, was briefed by Comdr. Walter M. Schirra Jr. (right) on the two-man moon capsule, and made two short speeches commending space center workers.
The President voiced none of the criticism or apprehension that has been heard from his Republican opponent, Senator Goldwater.
In a radio interview on June 6, 1963, with Rep. Harold C. Ostertag, a New York Republican, Goldwater said of the program to land a man on the moon:
“I think it’s a waste of money, and I think we can achieve the same thing in about the same length of time if we go about developing a very badly needed space program for the military.”
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments