On September 12, 1962, President John F.
Kennedy gave his rousing ‘To the Moon’ speech
at a crowded Rice Stadium, committing the
nation to putting an American on the Moon by
the end of the decade. In this 50th anniversary
year of that first moon landing and on the 57th
anniversary of the Rice speech, we discuss the
legacy of the JFK vision by examining the impact
of the Apollo program and looking to the future
with some modern day Moonshots.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER, AMERICAN MOONSHOT
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in
Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN
Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He
serves on boards at museums, colleges, and for historical societies.
The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” The
New-York Historical Society has chosen Brinkley as its official U.S.
Presidential Historian. His recent book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize,
while The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the
Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient
of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His annotated Nixon
Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He is a
member of the Century Association, the Council on Foreign Relations,
and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

PARTICIPANTS
Jim Bridenstine / NASA Administrator
Walter Kiefer / Lunar Planetary Institute
Steven Rothstein / John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
George Abbey, Douglas Brinkley (keynote) Qilin Li, José Onuchic,
Peter Rossky (moderator), Moshe Vardi / Rice University

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
5:00–5:30 Welcome reception
5:30–6:30 Keynote plus Q&A - Douglas Brinkley
6:40–7:30 Legacy Panel
7:30–8:30 Future Moonshots Panel
8:30–9:30 Reception and book signing

Directions/Parking

Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy is located on the campus of Rice University. Enter the campus at Entrance 20 off Rice Boulevard at Kent. Head south and turn west at the second stop sign onto Laboratory/Loop Road to access the Central Campus Garage under McNair Hall, which houses the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. All parking on campus is accessed using a credit card $12 maximum per day.