In challenging the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, U.S. president John Kennedy declared that the United States would reach the Moon by 1969 C.E. In order to reach this goal, research was seriously stepped up throughout the decade of the 1960's in both nations. (Indeed, when the Americans finally achieved their goal, the U.S.S.R. had nearly completed their own lunar lander.) Computers, rocketry, and space survival technology all gained an enormous boost during this period. Within a ten-year period, humankind had gone from simple three orbit "flights" using experimental chimpanzees to Neil Armstrong actually setting foot on another world. With that, the information gathered on this and subsequent voyages greatly increased mankind's knowledge of the evolution of planetary systems, space survival, and physics. Although the U.S. space program suffered a series of setbacks, the Apollo Program led directly to the International Moon Base, founded in 2042 C.E., and all other space colonization from then on.