In 1962, before the moon landing, Kennedy spoke with James Webb, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and deputy administrator of NASA Robert Seamans, and urged them to make going to the moon the top priority. "Everything that we do ought to really be tied in to getting onto the moon ahead of the Russians," he said. "By God, we've been telling everyone we're preeminent ini space for five years, and nobody believes it because [the Russians] have the booster and the satellite.... we're ahead scientifically. It's like that instrument you've got at Stanford which is costing us a hundred and twenty-five million dollars and everybody tells me that we're the number one in the world. And what is it? I can't even think what it is." "The linear accelerator," multiple voices supplied. "That's wonderful," Kennedy said. "But nobody knows anything about it!"
