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Embarrassed by a series of high profile achievements in space by the Soviet Union, President Kennedy scrambled to find a way for the United States to overtake the Soviet Union in the arena of space.

As ordered by the President, Vice President Johnson surveyed the space program, consulted the experts and reported that a manned mission to the Moon was a project in which the United States could conceivably beat the Soviet Union.

“With a strong effort, the United States could conceivably be first [in a manned trip to the Moon]”

--Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, April 28, 1961