Kennedy inspired generations of Americans to set their aspirations on space in 1962 when he challenged the country to land a man on the moon successfully by the end of the decade.
“I asked the audience this morning, ‘How many of you want to be astronauts?’ And many children and many grown-ups raised their hands,” said Alan Price, director of the Kennedy library and museum.
The daylong festivities dubbed JFK Space Fest 2019 drew more than 3,500 visitors of all ages to the Dorchester museum, where crowds gathered to hear from former astronauts, get up close with the Freedom 7 spacecraft that carried astronaut Alan Shepard in 1961, and see the Milky Way through virtual reality headsets.