“We choose to go to the Moon… we choose to go to the Moon… we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,” President John F. Kennedy declared at Rice University on September 12, 1962, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard!” Seven years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above them. For those who grew up regarding the astronauts as heroes, it is tempting to remember Apollo as a moment of complete national unity. It was not. Yet that disagreement makes Apollo a stronger example of popular consent, not a weaker one.

The Declaration of Independence affirms that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Popular consent, however, does not mean unanimous approval or a national referendum on every government undertaking. In a republic, the people ordinarily express consent through elected representatives, public debate, congressional appropriations, petitions, protests, and elections. The relevant question is therefore not whether every American supported Apollo. It is whether the program was proposed openly, authorized through representative institutions, subjected to criticism, and kept accountable to the people in whose name it was undertaken.

Apollo met that test. President Dwight Eisenhower and Congress established NASA in 1958. Kennedy publicly proposed landing a man on the Moon in 1961, but his speech alone could not commit the nation’s resources. Congress had to provide the necessary funding, reconsidering the program through repeated appropriations. Apollo then continued under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. At every stage, Americans remained free to support the program, oppose its expense, petition their representatives, and hold elected officials responsible for the choices they made. Apollo rested upon continuing political authorization, not the command of one leader.

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