40 Years On...One Giant Leap to Nowhere [Tom Wolfe]

[GRG55]

Some commentary from the author of "The Right Stuff"...

One Giant Leap to Nowhere

By
TOM WOLFE
Published: July 18, 2009

WELL, let’s see now ... That was a small step for Neil Armstrong, a giant leap for mankind and a real knee in the groin for NASA.

The American space program, the greatest, grandest, most Promethean — O.K. if I add “godlike”? — quest in the history of the world, died in infancy at 10:56 p.m. New York time on July 20, 1969, the moment the foot of Apollo 11’s Commander Armstrong touched the surface of the Moon...

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: 40 Years On...One Giant Leap to Nowhere [Tom Wolfe]

GRG55 got here firstest with this Tom Wolfe article (1:50 PM), but don got here with the mostest, posting the entire text on the post Green Shoots of Yesteryear at 3:06 PM.

[fliped42]

Re: 40 Years On...One Giant Leap to Nowhere [Tom Wolfe]

Some commentary from the author of "The Right Stuff"...

One Giant Leap to Nowhere

By
TOM WOLFE
Published: July 18, 2009

WELL, let’s see now ... That was a small step for Neil Armstrong, a giant leap for mankind and a real knee in the groin for NASA.

The American space program, the greatest, grandest, most Promethean — O.K. if I add “godlike”? — quest in the history of the world, died in infancy at 10:56 p.m. New York time on July 20, 1969, the moment the foot of Apollo 11’s Commander Armstrong touched the surface of the Moon...

2010: A new space odyssey beckons


The world is on the verge of new manned exploration of the solar system – and, this time, environmentalists are backing it
By David Randall, Victoria Richards and Andrew Johnson

Sunday, 19 July 2009

This weekend, 40 years after man first landed on the Moon, more human beings than ever before are orbiting on a single spacecraft. In 1969, three men squeezed into Apollo 11's command module, a craft little bigger than a Mini.


Yesterday, the International Space Station, now as large as a four-storey house, yet speeding at 17,239mph, took on board the crew of the shuttle Endeavour: 12 men, one woman – seven Americans, two Russians, two Canadians, one Japanese and a Belgian. During a two-man space-walk, the crew added a four-ton porch – an outdoor shelf for experiments – to the station.
It is yet another small step in space exploration. But next month, a far bigger one could be taken. A panel of specialists will advise President Barack Obama on whether the US should embark on an ambitious 21st-century space programme that could see Americans return to the Moon, and eventually venture further to near-Earth asteroids and Mars. It is an issue that rouses not just space enthusiasts but those who think the world should have other, greener priorities.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/2010-a-space-odyssey-1752287.html