John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon, and do the other things." What were the other things?

This famous speech, given in 1962 at Rice Stadium began "Why do we go to the Moon? Why do Rice play Texas?" so he was probably referring back to that facetious sporting comment.

I chose to answer this, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

Good gmack; I think in his speach of 9/12/62 "the other things" refered to his speach in Berlin 6/12/63. I feel this speach was as important as Lincolns gettysberg address towards freedom and democracy. "Ich bin ein Berliner" and more important, "Lass" sie nach Berliner kommen" helped spread the seeds to Pink Foyd's "Tear down the wall" (wich reached far more peple than Reagans "Mr Gorbachev Tear down this Wall')"and the so called fall of communism".

Sorry I meant 6/26/63.

In fact, Kennedy was going to negotiate with the Russians on joint operations to put people on the moon by the end of the decade - he wasn't really interested in a race so much as a quest. In mid November 1963 Kennedy and Khruschev had drawn up a general plan for how to put peple on the moon by 1970. But a couple weeks later Kennedy was shot, and LBJ concentrated on putting NASA at the cutting edge of space exploration.

Here are the other things:

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon... (interrupted by applause) we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

see http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/We_choose_to_go_to_the_moon for the entire speech