[Moonman62]

I think we managed 11 manned moon missions with 6 landings in 9 years

...

One has to consider that first design work on the F1 engine was in the early 1950’s and the first Saturn boosters were built while Eisenhower was still president. Von Braun had the moon in mind since he started designing rockets for America. It was the Soviet’s success that ended up giving NASA a blank check to go to the moon, though the media likes to give JFK all the credit.

[cripplecreek]

It was the Soviet’s success that ended up giving NASA a blank check to go to the moon, though the media likes to give JFK all the credit.

Good point. Any president from that era would have pushed hard to get to the moon first to beat the Soviets.