<P> At the time of Kennedy's proposal, only one American had flown in space--less than a month earlier--and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit . Even some NASA employees doubted whether Kennedy's ambitious goal could be met . By 1963, Kennedy even came close to agreeing to a joint US - USSR Moon mission, to eliminate duplication of effort . </P> <P> With the clear goal of a manned landing replacing the more nebulous goals of space stations and circumlunar flights, NASA decided that, in order to make progress quickly, it would discard the feasibility study designs of Convair, GE, and Martin, and proceed with Faget's command / service module design . The mission module was determined to be only useful as an extra room, and therefore deemed unnecessary . They used Faget's design as the specification for another competition for spacecraft procurement bids in October 1961 . On November 28, 1961, it was announced that North American Aviation had won the contract, although its bid was not rated as good as Martin's . Webb, Dryden and Robert Seamans chose it in preference due to North American's longer association with NASA and its predecessor . </P> <P> Landing men on the Moon by the end of 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($25 billion; $107 billion in 2016 dollars) ever made by any nation in peacetime . At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities . </P> <P> On July 1, 1960, NASA established the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama . MSFC designed the heavy lift - class Saturn launch vehicles, which would be required for Apollo . </P>

How much did it cost to land a man on the moon