“Not Because they are Easy. Because They Are Hard.”

• On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to commit several billion dollars in funds so that America could lead the rest of the world to the moon.
• On September 12, 1962, Kennedy visited Rice University, in Houston, to outline the effort.

The video is an art project celebrating the achievement of the decade-long effort that lead to the Apollo project, which placed 12 American men on the moon and cost 8 others their lives in this pursuit. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, I hope you will take a minute to reflect on the glorious scientific age that we live in.

And to remember that our country’s true "manifest destiny" isn’t as the world’s police or superpower. We are more than that. If there is such thing as manifest destiny, it is to lead all of mankind into a place of peace and prosperity, of knowledge and science.

A goal we achieved on July 20, 1969 when two men — Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldren — touched down in Tranquility Bay while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins orbited above.