Remarks Upon Presenting the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to the Apollo 8 Astronauts

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Colonel Borman, Captain Lovell, Colonel Anders, Dr. Paine, Mr. Webb, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

There is little that has not been said or written in praise of these famous men who have come here to the East Room with us this morning.

We are quite naturally proud that they are all Americans. But we recognize that mere national pride is insufficient; that these men represented in the vastness of space all mankind, all of its races, all of its nationalities, all of its religions, all of its ideologies. For 7 days the earth and all who inhabit it knew a measure of unity through these brave men.

Colonel Borman, Captain Lovell, Colonel Anders, you have been where no human being has ever ventured. You have seen firsthand what no human eye ever saw before you. Your flight was an unparalleled achievement of technology.

Yet, behind the sophisticated hardware of space, Apollo 8 was a story of men. There were those first men who dreamed of powered flight into space. There were those men in our Government who 10 years ago fought to guarantee America's role in space. And I am glad that I was one of them.

There was John Kennedy's fateful decision to make the great lunar effort. There were men of science and industry who designed and built the capsules and engines which carried you into the heavens.

There were the great administrators and advisers like Jim Webb, Tom Paine, Dr. George Mueller, Ed Welsh, and Hubert Humphrey, and the many unknown technicians whose perseverance and whose painstaking efforts and support finally brought us success.

There were the tough, trained, courageous young men like you who proved that space could be a thoroughly human adventure.

Our space program and this, its most spectacular achievement, have taught us some very invaluable lessons. We have learned how men and nations may make common cause in the most magnificent and hopeful enterprises of mankind.

We in the United States are already engaged in cooperative space activities with more than 70 nations of the world. We have proposed a variety of adventures to expand international partnership in space exploration.

This morning I renew America's commitment to that principle and to its enormous promise. The flight of Apollo 8 gives all nations a new and a most exciting reason to join in man's greatest adventure.

Finally, if there is an ultimate truth to be learned from this historic flight, it may be this: There are few social or scientific or political problems which cannot be solved by men, if they truly want to solve them together. That applies to the heavens or to hunger, to moon shots or to model cities.

Gentlemen, I am very proud to be privileged to present you with the NASA Distinguished Service Medals. They are very small tokens of our appreciation for what you have done for our country and for the world and for us.

This is the last time that I shall participate in a space ceremony as President of the United States.

I am proud that I have stood with the space effort from its first days, and I am so glad to see it now flower in this most marvelous achievement.

I am quite proud to live in a country that has produced men like you and produced the men who lifted you into the heavens.

God bless you. I wish you and your program continued success in all the days ahead.

[Thomas O. Paine, Acting Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, read the citations, the texts of which follow.]

THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
AWARDS TO
FRANK BORMAN
THE
NASA
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL

For outstanding contributions to space flight, engineering, and exploration as Commander of Apollo 8, mankind's first venture beyond earth gravity into orbit around the Moon. During this flawless mission from December 21 to December 27, 1968, he made critical decisions and carried out complex maneuvers to fly into precise trans-lunar injection, lunar orbit, and trans-earth injection flight paths to a successful reentry and splashdown within 5,000 yards of the recovery vessel. His scientific observations during the journey to and from the Moon and during 10 orbits of the Moon have added significantly to man's knowledge. He displayed outstanding leadership, courage, professional skill, and devotion to duty in accomplishing all planned mission objectives, significantly advancing the nation's capabilities in space. As one of history's boldest explorers, he has blazed a new trail for mankind out into the vastness of extraterrestrial space.
Signed and sealed at Washington, D.C. this eighth day of January . . .
Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Nine

T. O. Paine
Acting Administrator, NASA

[SEAL]

T.O. Paine
Deputy Administrator, NASA

THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
AWARDS TO
JAMES A. LOVELL, JR.
THE
NASA
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL

For outstanding contributions to space flight, engineering, and exploration as Command Module Pilot of Apollo 8, mankind's first venture beyond earth gravity into orbit around the Moon. During this flawless mission from December 21 to December 27, 1968, he made critical decisions and carried out complex maneuvers to fly into precise translunar injection, lunar orbit, and transearth injection flight paths to a successful reentry and splashdown within 5,000 yards of the recovery vessel. His scientific observations during the journey to and from the Moon and during 10 orbits of the Moon have added significantly to man's knowledge. He displayed outstanding leadership, courage, professional skill, and devotion to duty in accomplishing all planned mission objectives, significantly advancing the nation's capabilities in space. As one of history's boldest explorers, he has blazed a new trail for mankind out into the vastness of extraterrestrial space.

Signed and sealed at Washington, D.C.
this eighth day of January . . .
Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Nine

T. O. Paine
Acting Administrator, NASA

[SEAL]

T.O. Paine
Deputy Administrator, NASA

THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
AWARDS TO
WILLIAM A. ANDERS
THE
NASA
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL

For outstanding contributions to space flight, engineering, and exploration as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 8, mankind's first venture beyond earth gravity into orbit around the Moon. During this flawless mission from December 21 to December 27, 1968, he made critical decisions and carried out complex maneuvers to fly into precise translunar injection, lunar orbit, and transearth injection flight paths to a successful reentry and splashdown within 5,000 yards of the recovery vessel. His scientific observations during the journey to and from the Moon and during 10 orbits of the Moon have added significantly to man's knowledge. He displayed outstanding leadership, courage, professional skill, and devotion to duty in accomplishing all planned mission objectives, significantly advancing the nation's capabilities in space. As one of history's boldest explorers, he has blazed a new trail for mankind out into the vastness of extraterrestrial space.

Signed and sealed at Washington, D.C.
this eighth day of January . . .
Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Nine

T. O. Paine
Acting Administrator, NASA

[SEAL]

T.O. Paine
Deputy Administrator, NASA

[Following the reading of the citations, the three astronauts spoke briefly. The President then resumed speaking.]

Dr. Paine, our dreams and our hopes and our prayers will be with you in the days ahead as you continue to direct and lead this great effort.

But before we conclude these ceremonies, I would like to present to this audience the single man most responsible for successfully administering this program and, I think, the best administrator in the Federal Government, James Webb.