Editing Apollo program (section)

===Manned Spacecraft Center===
{{main|Johnson Space Center}}

It became clear that managing the Apollo program would exceed the capabilities of [[Robert R. Gilruth]]'s [[Space Task Group]], which had been directing the nation's crewed space program from NASA's [[Langley Research Center]]. So Gilruth was given authority to grow his organization into a new NASA center, the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center|Manned Spacecraft Center]] (MSC). A site was chosen in [[Houston]], Texas, on land donated by [[Rice University]], and Administrator Webb announced the conversion on September 19, 1961.<ref name="TNO 12">{{cite book |last1=Swenson |first1=Loyd S. Jr. |first2=James M. |last2=Grimwood |first3=Charles C. |last3=Alexander |title=This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/toc.htm |access-date=August 1, 2013 |series=The NASA History Series |orig-year=Originally published 1966 |date=1989 |publisher=NASA |location=Washington, D.C. |oclc=569889 |id=NASA SP-4201 |chapter=Chapter 12.3: Space Task Group Gets a New Home and Name |chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch12-3.htm |archive-date=July 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713233748/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/toc.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was also clear NASA would soon outgrow its practice of controlling missions from its [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]] launch facilities in Florida, so a new [[Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center|Mission Control Center]] would be included in the MSC.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dethloff |first=Henry C. |title=Suddenly Tomorrow Came ... A History of the Johnson Space Center |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |year=1993 |author-link= Henry C. Dethloff |chapter=Chapter 3: Houston – Texas – U.S.A. |isbn=978-1502753588 |url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/suddenly_tomorrow/suddenly.htm}}</ref>

[[File:President Kennedy speech on the space effort at Rice University, September 12, 1962.ogv|thumb|right|thumbtime=17:32|President Kennedy speaks at [[Rice University]], September 12, 1962 (17 min, 47 s).]]
In September 1962, by which time two Project Mercury astronauts had orbited the Earth, Gilruth had moved his organization to rented space in Houston, and construction of the MSC facility was under way, Kennedy visited Rice to reiterate his challenge in [[We choose to go to the Moon|a famous speech]]:
{{blockquote|But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why [[1924 British Mount Everest expedition|climb the highest mountain]]? Why, 35 years ago, [[Spirit of St. Louis|fly the Atlantic]]?{{nbsp}}...

We choose to go to the Moon. 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 we intend to win{{nbsp}}...<ref name="Rice Speech">{{cite web|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03SpaceEffort09121962.htm |url-status=dead |title=Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort |last=Kennedy |first=John F. |date=September 12, 1962 |publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum |location=Boston, MA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100506113709/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical%2BResources/Archives/Reference%2BDesk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03SpaceEffort09121962.htm |archive-date=May 6, 2010 |access-date=August 1, 2013}}</ref>{{efn|{{Cws |title=Full text |link=We choose to go to the moon |nobullet=yes}}}}}}

The MSC was completed in September 1963. It was renamed by the [[United States Congress]] in honor of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] soon after his death in 1973.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4109#axzz1RbWN5hpf |title=50—Statement About Signing a Bill Designating the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, as the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center |first=Richard M. |last=Nixon |author-link=Richard M. Nixon |date=February 19, 1973 |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=[[University of California, Santa Barbara]] |access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref>