Sunday 17 July, 2016  7.30pm to 9pm
Churchill Auditorium
Open to public upon registration
Book signing

Distinguished Lecture by: John Logsdon (George Washington University)

The 1961 decision by U.S. President John Kennedy to send astronauts to the moon “before this decade is out” remains the most dramatic choice in space history, and on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took ‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’ The success of the Apollo 11 mission satisfied the goal that had been set by the US president, but also raised the question ‘What do you do next, after landing on the Moon?’ It fell to President Richard M. Nixon to answer this question, and his response has changed the course of the US space program ever since.  ISU faculty member John Logsdon, author of the 2010 book “John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon” and the 2015 book “After Apollo?: Richard Nixon and the American Space Program” will discuss the reasons for Kennedy’s decision and the steps the young president took to turn the decision into a successful Apollo program, and will discuss the deliberations by President Richard Nixon to end the Apollo program and put the US space program on a different course.