The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 18 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
“Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we’re going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won’t be your grandfather’s moon shot.”
That statement appears on the NASA site A New Era of Space Exploration and is reminiscent of Kennedy’s Moon speach in ’62:
We choose to go to the moon. 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, 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 which we intend to win, and the others, too.
But going back. Wow. I never thought I’d have the chance to be a part of going to the Moon (that is, working on the devices that will send us back to the Moon, not necessisarily going to the Moon myself). If you’ve never seen Apollo 13 or if you never watched From the Earth to the Moon, you may not share my excitment. But this is it folks. I’m declaring right here and now that I am going to work on that project. No matter what it takes, I will be there and I will be able to say that I worked on that, and that a small part of me has gone to the Moon, even if I haven’t.
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