In the wake of this Apollo 11 celebration, I have gained more interest of the space program in general. I have read some articles of the so called Space Race although I must admit that I have been interested about it for years now in some extent but more so now than before. It is remarkable that there have been succesful space flights in 1960's given the techology they had at the time and even many men on the surface of the Moon who then returned safely to planet Earth, our home. Even though Apollo 13 was "the most succesful failure", I'd say that the Space Race is the main reason why most of us have computers at our homes, the internet and several other useful appliances at our disposal.
I just read the famous John F. Kennedy's speech about going to the Moon. He said, among other things, this:
"we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
Now, my question is as follows: What did he meant by "other things" and later when he said they intend to win the race to the moon and others too? I know this may be too hard to question to answer but I've been wondering when I first saw him say that years ago when I was a child and now this question has risen again in my mind. What did he meant by it? Was it just a way to shorten his speech, was it that he could not tell the public the rest or was it simply because he did not now if the race for the Moon was the only race but guessed that there must be other races too regarding Space, the final frontier?