The School of Athens

The School of Athens
The School of Athens by Raphael (click on picture to view short documentary from Columbia University)

Friday 30 May 2014

What vision and leadership can achieve

Colleagues and scholars from coast to coast, across Bass Strait and all the ships at sea.

Yesterday, May 29, was the birthday of President John F. Kennedy. He would have turned 97.

Without any doubt, humanity's greatest achievement was landing a man on the Moon in 1969. One of President Kennedy's great achievements was setting that goal for the United States. 

First he set the vision, then he inspired the nation to embrace the vision and then, crucially, the resources necessary to achieve the vision.

A lesson for all leaders.


May 25, 1961, Speech to Congress:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."  See YouTube clip here




September 12, 1962, Speech at Rice University:

"We choose to go to the Moon. 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 organise 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 we intend to win and the others too." See YouTube clip here





July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon, a few minutes later, Buzz Aldrin descends ladder on the Lunar Module.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."



Lest anyone forgets, or sadly doesn't know, the impact the moon landing had on people, watch this YouTube clip of Walter Cronkite's coverage at the time here

"When that vehicle landed on the Moon, I was speechless. I really couldn't say a thing."

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Our home

Our home
Earthrise over the moon (click on picture to view film)

The pale blue dot

The pale blue dot
Earth viewed from Saturn (click on picture to view film clip)

Our neighbourhood

Our neighbourhood
The Solar System (click on picture to view film)

Our Home Galaxy

Our Home Galaxy
The Milky Way (click on picture to view film)

A sister galaxy

A sister galaxy
Andromeda (click on picture to view film)

Another sister galaxy

Another sister galaxy
Triangulum (click on picture to view short film clip)

The Local Group of Galaxies

The Local Group of Galaxies
Our Galactic Neighbourhood (click on picture to view film clip).

Our farthest view of the Universe

Our farthest view of the Universe
Hubble's farthest view (click on picture to view film clip)

The virgo super cluster of galaxies

The virgo super cluster of galaxies
Galaxies within 100 million light years (click on picture to view film clip)

Galaxies within 1 billion light years

Galaxies within 1 billion light years

Universe

Universe