Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort

Edition

Transcript published by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on its Historic Speeches page (transcript 11766, English). The site was behind a browser check on 27 September 2026: the page was read from its capture of 1 August 2026 by the Internet Archive, and the transcript, which the page loads from jfklibrary.org/historic-speeches-transcripts-rest?nid=11766&langcode=en, from the capture of that address of 29 March 2024, identical to those of February 2023, October 2023 and February 2024. It is the text as delivered, not the reading copy: it has the President’s asides and the audience’s “[laughter]”, as has the White House press release of the remarks of 12 September 1962, kept by the library in its folder JFKPOF-040-001 with the draft and the reading copy. Three possessives are typed with a superscript one (U+00B9) in place of the apostrophe (“man¹s”, “America¹s”, “year¹s”): they are set with an apostrophe. Everything else is kept as in the transcript, including its seven double hyphens (--), “[laughter]” and the slip “I do not say the we should”.

Rights

In the United States, a work of the federal government (17 U.S.C. 105), as the President delivered it in his official capacity, on 12 September 1962. In France, the rule of the shorter term (article L. 123-12 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle, after article 7(8) of the Berne Convention): for a work whose country of origin is outside the European Union and whose author is not a national of a member state, the protection lasts as long as in the country of origin, which grants none.

Terms of use of the JFK Library (https://www.jfklibrary.org/about-us/privacy-and-terms-of-use, read from its capture of 22 July 2026 by the Internet Archive): five sections of the site are “administered by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation”, and Historic Speeches is not one of them; “Terms of use for the remainder of the site are the same as those for using any NARA Web Site.” NARA (https://www.archives.gov/global-pages/privacy.html): “Generally, materials produced by Federal agencies are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission.”, though “not all materials appearing on this website are in the public domain.” The page of the speech gives the NASA film of the address (USG-15-29-2) the “Copyright Status: Public Domain”.