President Kennedy departing Houston. Footage of US President John F. Kennedy boarding Air Force One and departing Houston, Texas, USA, at the end of his visit there on 12 September 1962. That morning, he had made his famous speech ('We choose to go to the Moon') at Rice University's Rice Stadium. He had then toured NASA's newly established Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. In 1961, Kennedy had pledged that the USA would achieve a Moon landing before the end of the decade. This led to a massive expansion of NASA and the Apollo moon programme, including the establishment of the centre in Houston (later named the Johnson Space Center).