8. He Had An Obsession With UFOs
During Kennedy's presidency, the USA were involved in a 'Space Race' with the USSR as the two nations fought to attain firsts in space exploration, with the main aim to launch a piloted voyage to the Moon. Kennedy was fascinated with the extraterrestrial, and even wrote to the CIA
demanding to see secret UFO files. After his death, the Launch Operations Directorate (LOD) Space Centre was renamed the Kennedy Space Centre, which since December 1968 has been used for every NASA human space flight. On 20 July 1969, Kennedy's dream for the USA to launch a piloted voyage to the moon was realised when the United States' Apollo 11 beat the USSR to become the first manned mission to land on the moon.