Richard Nixon and Apollo 11

P resident-elect Richard Nixon, like most Americans, was thrilled by the December 1968 Apollo 8 mission, the first space flight to leave Earth orbit with humans aboard. Apollo 8 sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders into orbit around the Moon on December 24. In his Memoirs, Nixon recalled that on that Christmas Eve, he “was a happy man.” At his retreat on Key Biscayne, Florida, “a wreath hung on the front door and a beautifully trimmed Christmas tree stood in the living room. . . Far out in space Apollo VIII orbited the moon while astronaut Frank Borman read the story of the Creation from the Book of Genesis.[1] Those days were rich with happiness and full of anticipation and hope.”1

The afterglow of the bold Apollo 8 mission was still bright as Richard Milhous Nixon was sworn in as the thirty-seventh president of the United States on January 20, 1969. References to that mission and to space explora­tion in general appeared throughout the new president’s inaugural address:

• “In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new hori­zons on earth.”

• “We find ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.”

• “As we explore the reaches of space, let us go to new worlds together—not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventure to be shared.”

• “Only a few weeks ago we shared the glory of man’s first sight of the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light in the darkness. As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon’s grey surface on Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth.”

• “In that moment of surpassing technological triumph, men turned their thoughts toward home and humanity—seeing in that far perspective that

man’s destiny on earth is not divisible; telling us that however far we reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on earth itself.”2

As he assumed the presidency, Richard Nixon was well aware that the success of the Apollo 8 mission meant that the United States during his first year in the White House almost surely would achieve the lunar landing goal set by Nixon’s long-time nemesis John F. Kennedy eight years earlier. He also knew that in his first year in office he would face significant space policy decisions, choices that would set the path in space for the United States for the coming decade and beyond. But there was no sense of urgency within the Nixon administration with respect to defining what the United States would do in space after landing on the Moon; the space program was not high on Nixon’s policy agenda. More important in the short run was making sure that the lunar landing program was a success and that Richard Nixon was closely identified with that success.