Season 1, Episode 3: Innovations and Challenges from Space Exploration: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

October 25, 2018

About this Episode

Cordless power tools, memory foam mattresses, and the camera on your cell phone are all inventions as a result of the research and development of the space program. When President Kennedy set a goal to land on the Moon by the end of the 1960s, he mobilized a surge in innovation that changed the world forever.

Join us as we remember John F. Kennedy’s legacy of bold leadership and celebrate six decades of NASA in this episode of JFK35.

Special thanks to this week's guests, NASA’s Chief Historian Dr. Bill Barry and filmmaker Rory Kennedy.

What We Talked About

13-year-old Mary Lou Reitler wrote to President Kennedy, questioning why the United States is spending so much money on the space program.

Read her full letter.

Carbon copy of Special Deputy Counsel Myer Feldman's reply to Mary Lou Reitler, explaining that space exploration is necessary, in part, to advance our knowledge and that it may benefit us in ways currently unimaginable.

Read his full letter.

NASA sought out help from Black and Decker to develop a cordless power tool to help drill holes on the Moon during the Apollo program. (Adobe Stock Photo)

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed the CMOS chip which helped create miniature cameras on space probes and are now used on all smart phones. (Adobe Stock Photo)

Learn More

Read about the Space Program under President Kennedy.

View a gallery of more photographs and documents related to space exploration.

If you have a story idea or want to let us know how we're doing, email us at JFK35Pod@jfklfoundation.org.