(Think of the phrase ‘I have a dream’, which Martin Luther King Jr. Repeating a key phrase in speech builds its impact. Those devices also included the highly effective use of repetition, as in this excerpt: This meant using the best rhetorical devices, including pace and emotion, building to several high points in a talk that lasted less than 18 minutes. (You can see the original here, with additions in Kennedy’s own handwriting.) Sorensen managed to convey an immense amount of information while still managing to inspire and entertain. The speech had actually been drafted not by Kennedy but by a lawyer, White House Counsel Ted Sorensen. (Lindbergh would later calculate that the Saturn V rocket burned more fuel per second than he had used on his entire journey.)ġ8 minutes to alter the course of history At the time, it was only 35 years since Charles Lindbergh had made his first flight across the Atlantic. This must have sounded like the stuff of fantasy. And it lit a fire under the whole project, committing the US to sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was out. Kennedy to an audience of some 40,000 people, in the searing heat of Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, on 12 September 1962. It was certainly one of the most persuasive. In this post, I want to look at three examples that were pivotal.įirst, the whole project had been kicked off by what, in my opinion, is one of the best ‘presentations’ of all time. In other words, by written and verbal communication. Such a glamorous, spectacular endeavour was brought to fruition by the seemingly mundane: by countless reports, memos, telephone calls, presentations, meetings and telex messages. It was achieved by solving problems together, advancing science and sharing technical expertise, and by constant motivation to keep going. To bring together the best of human knowledge and focus it on executing one insanely ambitious project was made possible only by the efficient transfer of knowledge from brain to brain. Sometimes working together perfectly, most of the time stumbling forwards – just like we all do – but, over time, making incredible progress. It was achieved by around 400,000 scientists, engineers and technicians, working in concert over an eight-year period. Kennedy called the greatest technical endeavour of the twentieth century in such a ridiculously short stretch of time seems nothing short of miraculous. Just eight years earlier, the Americans had never even been into space. But it’s actually difficult to overstate the technical achievement all of this represented. Those of us who have grown up with the knowledge that this happened may easily take it for granted. And within a week, they had returned safely back to Earth. By 20 July, they had landed on the moon’s surface with just 15 seconds of fuel left. Yet its precious cargo – Michael Collins, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong – were alive and well.
If it had exploded, it would have done so with the force of a small atomic bomb.
The Saturn V rocket propelling them had contained almost 2,000 tonnes of fuel when it left the launchpad in Florida just three days earlier – a volatile mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen.
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