What was Kennedy's influence on space exploration?
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I suggest you begin with two searches on Wikipedia. One is 'space race' and the other is 'John F Kennedy'.
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Our technology has improved quite a bit since the Apollo program. In particular, computers are able to do the routine chores that required humans back in the late 60's and early 70's. The person up in orbit was there to direct the orbiter to rendevous. This is no longer required.
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1. His scientists developed the modern rocket,  which was and is still used in space exploration.\n2. His scientists also developed the jet engine, without which modern flight would take much longer.\n3. He created a war so horrific that it forced Europe to realize war was the means of destruction only, and that to grow as a continent, they must learn to live in cooperative peace.  This is really the first time this concept has been brought to frution.\n\nOkay, enough devil's advocate for one day.
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I think that a return to space is inevitable, and will reap enormous benefits in our understanding of ecology, medicine, electronics, propulsion and power generation, food production, and a host of other areas that we can only guess at from this side of the process. \nMars is a good goal, simply because, as JFK said, "it is hard." Landing on, and staying on, Mars, or the moon, is a tremendous undertaking, and one well worthwhile.\nThe problem, as I see it, is that while we are wasting so much of our energy combatting phantoms, we may find it difficult to coordinate the necessary effort to succeed in such an endeavor.\nSo until "terror" stops being the driving force in American politics, I think any serious striving for "progress" will be put on the back burner.\nAnd that is a terrifying though, isn't it?
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Frankly I was not aware of this till now. But I did some 1 hour research for you question and here is what I found out.\n\nKennedy used "Castro-Card" to defeat Nixon as the Cold War was in full force. But he was unaware that the CIA had all planned and was more than happy to have the hawkish Kennedy to get elected.\n\nApparently Kennedy developed cold feet and tried to avoid "US Involvement" and did some utterly stupid changes to the plan which nothing but doomed the invasion. Its the worst fiasco to hit the Kennedy Administration.\n\nHere are some links with more material for your essay. If possible buy/rent that book "Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs ". You will blow your peers' essays with your explosive view points...\n\nAll the Best. Please do message me as how you did and what score it fetched to you..\n\n.:Fishie:.
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John F. Kennedy(J.F.K)
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Lunar Module: Eagle  \nCommand and Service Module: Columbia \nCrew:  Neil Armstrong ,commander\nMichael Collins, command module pilot\nEdwin Aldrin, lunar module pilot \nLaunch: July 16, 1969\n13:32:00 UT (09:32 a.m. EDT) Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A \nLanding Site: Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility)\n0.67 N, 23.47 E \nLanded on Moon: July 20, 1969\n20:17:40 UT (4:17:40 p.m. EDT)  \nFirst step: 02:56:15 UT July 21, 1969\n(10:56:15 p.m. EDT July 20, 1969) \nEVA duration: 2 hours, 31 minutes  \nLunar Surface Traversed: ~250 meters \nMoon Rocks Collected: 21.7 kilograms \nLM Departed Moon: July 21, 1969\n17:54:01 UT (1:54:01 p.m. EDT) \nReturned to Earth: July 24, 1969\n16:50:35 UT (12:50:35 p.m. EDT) \nTime on Lunar Surface: 21 hours, 38 minutes, 21 seconds  \nMission Duration: 195 hr. 18 min. 35 sec. \nRetrieval site: Pacific Ocean 13° 19'N latitude and 169° 9'W longitude  \nRetrieval ship: U.S.S. Hornet \nSpecial Payload: \nPlaque (commemorates first manned landing) \nCarried to Moon and returned two large American flags, flags of the 50 states, District of Columbia and U.S. Territories, flags of other nations and that of the United Nations. \nMEPS (Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly) containing TV camera to record first steps on Moon and EASEP (Early Apollo Science Equipment Package). \n \n \nHighlights:\n\nFirst men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. First return of samples from another planetary body. \nThe prime mission objective of Apollo 11 is stated simply: "Perform a manned lunar landing and return". \nFirst return of samples from another planetary body. These first samples were basalts, dark-colored igneous rocks, and they were about 3.7 billion years old.\n\nPlaque affixed to the leg of the lunar landing vehicle signed by President Nixon, Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. The plaque bears a map of the Earth and this inscription: HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH\nFIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON \nJULY 1969 A.D. \nWE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND\n\n \nMore:\n\nThe Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy at 13:31:01 GMT on July 16, 1969. After 2 hr and 33 min in Earth orbit, the S-IVB engine was reignited for acceleration of the spacecraft to the velocity required for Earth gravity escape. \n\nLunar-orbit insertion began at 75:50 ground elapsed time (GET). The spacecraft was placed in an elliptical orbit (61 by 169 nautical miles), inclined 1.25 degrees to the lunar equatorial plane. At 80:12 GET, the service module propulsion system was reignited, and the orbit was made nearly circular (66 by 54 nautical miles) above the surface of the Moon. Each orbit took two hours. Photographs taken from lunar orbit provided broad views for the study of regional lunar geology.\n \nThe lunar module (LM), with Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin aboard, was undocked from the command-service module (CSM) at 100:14 GET, following a thorough check of all the LM systems. At 101:36 GET, the LM descent engine was fired for approximately 29 seconds, and the descent to the lunar surface began. At 102:33 GET, the LM descent engine was started for the last time and burned until touchdown on the lunar surface. Eagle landed on the Moon 102 hr, 45 min and 40 sec after launch.\n\nImmediately after landing on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared the LM for liftoff as a contingency measure. Following the meal, a scheduled sleep period was postponed at the astronauts' request, and the astronauts began preparations for descent to the lunar surface.\n \nAstronaut Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on which the surface television camera was stowed, and the camera recorded humankind's first step on the Moon at 109:24:19 GET. A sample of lunar surface material was collected and stowed to assure that, if a contingency required an early end to the planned surface activities, sam
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If we knew what we were doing, then it wouldn't be call research, would it?    -- Albert Einstein\n\nSpace research helps us to understand what is around us. We have gathered great knowledge (transistor radio to computer technology (don't knock it... you're using it now)). I don't know what the opposition would have as an argument except for the astronauts who WILLINGLY gave their lives for the greater good. They understand the risks and still jump for the opportunity to participate due to its findings.\nI believe space exploration is beneficial and should continue.
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1) Practice.  If we are to go anywhere else, we need to learn how to handle the unfriendly environment.\n\n2) Unknown intangibles.  The original space program needed small, lightweight computers to take with them in space.  Now everyone reading this is using a small, lightweight computer, rather than using a terminal to tie into a large mainframe.\n\nA return to space, for long-duration missions, could (repeat, COULD) yield new recycling methods, or improved energy-efficiency, or localized energy production.\n\nOr it may produce nothing.  It's a gamble.  But compared to other gambles that we routinely make (research into more effective weapons, that may never be needed to be used, for example), it's a comparatively inexpensive one.
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On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  NASA began operation on October 1, 1958.
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Fidel Castro became aligned with the U.S.S.R. and in 1961 nearly brought the world to nuclear war when he allowed the Soviets to install nuclear-capable missiles on Cuban soil (which made them close enough to the United States to allow them to reach the East Coast of this country within minutes. President Kennedy waged a 13-day negotiation with/ultimatim against Nikita Kruschev and the U.S.S.R.  Eventually, the Soviets backed down and removed the weapons, but by this time, Cuba had declared itself Communist and was aligned with the Soviets until that the U.S.S.R. crumbled in 1989.  The Congress and the Kennedy Administration refused to finance our mortal enemies and closed off all trade with Cuba.
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On February 10, 1961, photographer George Tames was allowed to spend the entire working day with the recently inaugurated Kennedy, and the best of the resulting pictures became a visual essay in the New York Times Magazine, titled "A Day in the Life of John F. Kennedy." Among the images included was this picture taken in the White House Oval Office a little after 5:00 p.m., showing Kennedy poring over a newspaper. The standing position was typical of Kennedy who frequently felt the need to rise from his chair to ease his chronic back pain.\n\nKennedy had a shrewd sense for which imagery worked best with the public. Thus, when Tames let him preview the picture essay's final layout, he recognized immediately that this faceless, shadowed portrait with its sense of quiet isolation conveyed the gravity of the presidency in a way that few other pictures could. Upon spotting it in its relatively unfeatured position, he declared that this was the image that, above all others, should have been carried on the magazine's cover.
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kennedy, johnson, nixon
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Kennedy's pledge to get to the moon by the end of the decade in response to the Russians beating us to space with Sputnik
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President.\n\nJFK may have won the White House with the narrowest margin (until 2000) but he did much to win back support during 2 3/4 years in office. \n\nHis inaugural address is probably the best in Presidential history. It gave a sense of direction for the nation and opened up the challenges for the 60s. Kennedy was the first President born in the 20th century to occupy the White House and his young age drew a chord with the baby boomers.\n\nHe made a blunder with the Bay of Pigs, but one must must understand that the ColdWar was at it's height. The Chiefs of the Armed Forces were mainly hawks at the time, (given their experiences with WWII and the Korean Conflict) but Kennedy maintained control over them. This was best seen in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.\n\nAgainst the advice of his top commanders, Kennedy held back and refused to allow an invasion, had he done so, the invasion force would have been wiped out by a Soviet force in Cuba which had tactical nuclear missiles and whose orrders were to use them in the event of an invasion. The General in charge said so in an interview in 1992. the reason was simple, in those days communications was not so easy, he wouldn't have time to call and get an answer from  Moscow, he would follow the last directive to use the weapons. Had that occured, the US would then be at war with the USSR and Cuba in a nuclear conflict.\n\nWe wouldn't be here today if that occured. So that was Kennedy's finest moment, preventing nuclear conflict and forcing the Soviets to back down with his naval blockade.\n\nHis assassination shocked the country and its' wounds are still felt today. It was like a loss of innocence for many. However, it did much to unite the people with the Presidency. LBJ was able to use that unifying force to get many Bills through and swept the 1964 elections in the biggest landslide in US election history.\n\nThe "Goldwater conservatives" who we see in abundance today took a heavy beating. \n\nIn life, Kennedy gave much character and hope to the American people (the same with Reagan, who gave us a sense of pride more than in achievement), at a time when Americans needed that uplift in spirit for the future. In death, he brought the people closer to the Presidency and gave much more drive to achieve the goals he set out, like putting a man on the moon, bridging blacks into mainstream America and putting America's future in the young.\n\nI will end with 2 quotes from his inaugural address which I personally like;\n\n'Let every other nation know, whether they wish us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty'\n\n'Finally whether you are citizens of America and of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifise that we shall ask of you, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God's work must truly be our own'.
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Kennedy was President from January 20, 1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963.
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Yes - we learnt that there was no cheese in the moon or that there were no green men in mars.\n\nJokes apart - improvements in space travel - hs helped in improving sea going vehicles (submarines etc) also treatment of paraliysed people, also treatment of muscle atrophied etc...\n\nalso the satelite age heraled the ability for us all to better predict weather changes and also determine where the next oil deposit could well be...etc\n\nso you need to look at it all in the context of the benefits of space travel...so yes its important...\n\nand the money spent is well spent