Scientific Cooperation with the Soviet Union

Archive Report

Difficult Path to Scientific Cooperation

Moon Project Proposal and Soviet Rejection

President Kennedy's proposal to convert the race to the moon into a joint lunar expedition of American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts, advanced in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, aroused little enthusiasm in this country and was met in Russia at first only by silence. More than a month passed before Soviet Premier Khrushchev told newspaper correspondents, Oct. 26, that “We are not at present planning flights by cosmonauts to the moon.” Khrushchev wished the Americans success and added that “We shall take their experience into account.” Initial assumptions that Russia was abandoning aspirations to make a moon landing proved over-hasty. However, there seemed no doubt that the Premier's statement ...

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