President Kennedy at Cape Canaveral

President John F. Kennedy, right, gets an explanation of the Saturn V launch system from Dr. Wernher von Braun, center, at Cape Canaveral in November 1963. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is to the left of von Braun.

Fifty years ago, on Sept. 12, 1962, Kennedy gave an address at Rice University making the case for why the United States should go to the moon with the Apollo program, an initiative he'd launched the previous year. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things," said Kennedy, "not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Credit: NASA

NASA Highlights 50th Anniversary of Kennedy 'Moon Speech' and Looks Ahead

Allard Beutel

Headquarters, Washington                

202-358-2191

allard.beutel@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA is offering a variety of special features to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's address at Rice University in Houston on Sept. 12, 1962. In that famous speech, Kennedy proclaimed, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade," which set the United States on a course of space exploration that we continue to build on today.

On Wednesday, NASA Television will air in its entirety a high-quality version of the address at 11:15 a.m. EDT, the same time President Kennedy gave the speech 50 years ago.

NASA's website will have a special blog from NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and an online feature that highlights the speech and provides information about NASA's current and future exploration programs.

NASA.gov and NASA TV will show a message about the speech from NASA astronaut Suni Williams on board the International Space Station. Williams will become commander of the orbiting laboratory this weekend.

At 3 p.m., NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers will hold a Google+ Hangout to talk about NASA's rich history of innovation and ingenuity, and discuss NASA's future goals for scientific discovery and human spaceflight. To join the event, visit http://plus.google.com/+NASA.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For all the special features about the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's "moon speech" and a look ahead at NASA's space exploration in the coming decades, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

- end -

Single-molecule Nanocars

Representation of single-molecule nanocars on a flat metallic surface. A National Science Foundation-funded research team led by James Tour of William Marsh Rice University designed and synthesized this class of molecular machines that resemble macroscopic vehicles and are designed to convert energy inputs such as heat, electric fields or light into controlled motion on a surface, ultimately leading to transport of nanocargo.

Designed to be studied at the single-molecule level by scanning probe microscopy (SPM), these so-called nanocars are composed of a chassis connected to wheel-terminated axles. The rotation of the nanocar wheels induces a directional rolling of the nanocars on a surface. C60 fullerene wheel-based nanocars allowed the demonstration of the directional rolling mechanism of a nanocar on a gold surface by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Functional nanocars for transporting atoms and molecules and new molecular wheels have also been developed. Complementary single molecule imaging techniques such as STM, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and single molecule fluorescence microscopy, as well as molecular dynamics, have been used to study these nanocars. [Research supported by NSF grant ECCS 07-08765.]

(Date of Image: July 2009)

Credit: James Tour, Rice University