When JFK gave his famous speech at Rice University in 1962 he stated that:

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy - but because they are hard!

One thing has always intrigued me about this, and that is what are/were "the other things"?
It has always struck me as a bit too vague to be included in that sentence considering the enormity of the task of going to the Moon.