“We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the
Moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because
they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of
our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to
accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and win the
others, too.”
– famous excerpt from John F. Kennedy’s speech at the
Rice University football stadium, September 12, 1962, before a crowd estimated
at 40,000.
Fourteen months and ten days later, Kennedy was
assassinated.
And an almost incomprehensible five years and eight
months after that terrible November 22, 1963, men walked on the surface of
another astronomical object, the Moon, 250,000 miles away.
Ten days from now will mark the half-century
anniversary of that momentous Giant Leap for Mankind.
About a decade ago I succumbed to an intense
fascination with the subject and did much research – accumulating nearly 50
pages of typewritten notes. Over the next ten days I plan on posting lots of
interesting, intriguing, and inspiring stuff relating to the moon landing. To
this day this mighty singular accomplishment still sends shivers down my arms
as well as intensely saddens my soul that we lack the courage and convictions
to explore new worlds today.
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