Today our concern must be with the future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do. . . . Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men’s minds?

Are we up to the task—are we equal to the challenge? . . . .

That is the question of the New Frontier.

–John F. Kennedy,
July 15, 1960

According to Kennedy, what is the question of the New Frontier?