FOR PRESS: P. M. No. 58/ 1969
PRIME MINISTER'S MESSAGE FOR THE MOON
The Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton, has been invited by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency to send a message to the moon with the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission.
Microfilmed messages from a number of world leaders are to be sealed in a capsule and left on the moon's surface.
Mr. Gorton's message reads:-
"Australians are pleased and proud to have played a part in helping to make it possible for the first man from earth to land on the moon. This is a dramatic fulfilment of man's urge to go 'always a little further' to explore and know the formerly unknown; to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. May the high courage and the technical genius which made this achievement possible be so used in the future that mankind will live in a universe in which peace, self-expression, and the chance of dangerous adventure are available to all.
JOHN GORTON." CANBERRA 13 July 1969