Kennedy, NASA disagreed over moon mission

President Kennedy called for a mission to send man to the moon during a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A newly released tape recording from November 21, 1962, reveals NASA disagreed with President John F. Kennedy's number one priority at the time: to beat the Soviet Union in landing a man on the moon.

In a heated exchange with Kennedy, NASA chief James Webb was asked if he agreed with the president on that priority. "No sir, I do not," he replied. "I think it is ONE of the top priority programs."

Webb said he believed NASA's priority was to understand the moon's environment and how the laws of nature behave there -- not actually to land on the moon.

RESOURCES Hear the White House audio tapes  (JFK Library) Message Board: Space exploration

He and his deputy, Robert Seamans, said the Apollo space program should aim at exploring how people could work on the moon, carrying out a program of scientific exploration, and then developing the technology to meet other national interests in space.

Kennedy argued a lunar landing would achieve the same outcome.

The John F. Kennedy Library has released the fully declassified 73-minute recording of the meeting with no excisions, saying it offers a window into presidential decision-making. It also noted that unlike many other recordings from its archives, the quality and clarity of this particular recording are exceptional. The tape is identified as Number 63.

The meeting took place in the Cabinet Room with Kennedy; Webb; Seamans; Vice President Lyndon Johnson; David E. Bell, director of the budget bureau, and six other officials from NASA and the presidential staff.

A picture of Earthrise over the lunar horizon was taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts.

Webb expressed concern about various factors, saying it was unknown if humans could live on the moon, and "we don't know anything about the surface of the moon."

Kennedy and his staff also discussed a supplemental budget for NASA and whether they should speed up the target dates for orbital flights and the Apollo space program, including the lunar landing, initially scheduled for 1967.

There was disagreement between Kennedy and Webb over directing federal funds across the entire space program or concentrating the money on a lunar landing.

Other subjects discussed were the political significance of John Glenn's 1962 orbital flight, the game plan for asking for more NASA support from congressional leaders, and the rising costs of governmental contracts.

It was more than six years after the meeting that the Apollo 11 lunar module crew of Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) E. Aldrin Jr. became the first humans to land on the moon, on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module.