JFK's Final Days: November 16, 1963
On Saturday, November 16, 1963 (50 years ago today), President John F. Kennedy was in Florida to visit the Cape Canaveral Space Center (later to be renamed Cape Kennedy). While there he received a briefing from Dr Werner von Braun, the NASA scientist who had once been one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II. He was also briefed by astronauts Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper. He later traveled by helicopter from the Capt to a Navy vessel where he watched the launch of a Polaris missile from a submarine.
Following is a video of a news report Kennedy's visit to NASA that day:
Here's an interesting passage that I found in Thurston Clarke's recent book entitled JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President, at page 306, about Kennedy's meeting with von Braun:
Kennedy knew that his brother Joe had died while on a mission to obliterate bunkers on the French coastline that were being prepared as launching sites for the unmanned rockets that the Germans planned to fire at British cities, and he knew that von Braun, who had belonged to the Nazi Party, had engineered those rockets. He had mentioned this when they met in 1953 at a New York television studio while waiting to appear on a program announcing the nomination for Time's Man of the Year. When vob Braun later recounted their conversation, he spoke of Joe being killed "in an airplane accident that was closely related to the fledgling technology," a delicate way of framing his connection to the Kennedy family.
After emerging from the Saturn Control Center into the blinding sunshine, von Braun and Kennedy were driven to a launch pad where the skyscraper-high Saturn I rocket stood pointed at the heavens. Von Braun explained that when it was launched next month, it would be more powerful and would carry a heavier payload than anything the Soviet Union had shot into space.
After staring at it for several moments, Kennedy said, "Now, this will be the largest payload that man has ever put into orbit, is that right?" After von Braun again assured him that it was, he said, "That is very, very significant."
Following is a video of a news report Kennedy's visit to NASA that day:
Here's an interesting passage that I found in Thurston Clarke's recent book entitled JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President, at page 306, about Kennedy's meeting with von Braun:
Kennedy knew that his brother Joe had died while on a mission to obliterate bunkers on the French coastline that were being prepared as launching sites for the unmanned rockets that the Germans planned to fire at British cities, and he knew that von Braun, who had belonged to the Nazi Party, had engineered those rockets. He had mentioned this when they met in 1953 at a New York television studio while waiting to appear on a program announcing the nomination for Time's Man of the Year. When vob Braun later recounted their conversation, he spoke of Joe being killed "in an airplane accident that was closely related to the fledgling technology," a delicate way of framing his connection to the Kennedy family.
After emerging from the Saturn Control Center into the blinding sunshine, von Braun and Kennedy were driven to a launch pad where the skyscraper-high Saturn I rocket stood pointed at the heavens. Von Braun explained that when it was launched next month, it would be more powerful and would carry a heavier payload than anything the Soviet Union had shot into space.
After staring at it for several moments, Kennedy said, "Now, this will be the largest payload that man has ever put into orbit, is that right?" After von Braun again assured him that it was, he said, "That is very, very significant."