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Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) released the following statement honoring the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s historic 1961 address to Congress in which he outlined his vision of landing an American on the Moon by the end of the decade:

“On this date fifty years ago, President Kennedy ignited an American revolution in technology, engineering and accomplishing impossible feats with his historic speech to Congress in which he declared America was going to land a man on the Moon,” said Congressman Bill Posey who as a young man worked on the Apollo program at the Kennedy Space Center.

“It was an exciting time – our space program had a clear mission and because of that mission, our nation made significant advancements in many important fields. Those advancements helped create the foundation for modern life in America.

“But without direction at NASA, we risk losing our hard earned leadership in space along with the next chapter of American ingenuity – a point made by Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan in their USA Today column calling to account the apparent dismantling of NASA’s human space flight program.

“Given our current economic situation, high unemployment and public discontent about the direction our nation is heading, our leaders would be wise to build upon President Kennedy’s vision by creating a permanent human presence on the Moon as a stepping stone to further explore our solar system. With the right guidance and proper management, such an objective can be accomplished even within the current budget constraints.”