Word: millions
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...last moment, it was possible that the failure of a single tiny device among the 15 million individual parts of Apollo 11 might cause delay on the pad or more serious consequences in space. Up to the last moment, too, complaints were being voiced about misspent money and misguided motives. But not even the skeptics could ignore or entirely downgrade so transcendent an event-one of those shining moments in history when man rises above himself toward greatness...
...contribution of Apollo 11 to modern science will be the 100-odd lbs. of lunar rock and soil scheduled to be brought back by the astronauts. To safeguard this precious cargo, NASA has set up an elaborate system that stretches from the moon across space to Houston's $15.8 million Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) and to universities and laboratories all over the world. Says LRL Curator Elbert King: "Scientifically, this will be worth more than any other material in history...
...Apollo 11 samples will be taken from the surface of the Sea of Tranquillity, researchers may well be able to estimate the age of the moon's maria, or seas. This, in turn, might settle a longstanding controversy among selenologists: Were the maria formed as recently as 100 million years ago, or have they existed nearly as long as the moon itself?billions of years...
Manufacturers, too, may eventually find the moon economically irresistible. Anywhere they choose to locate on the 15 million square miles of lunar surface, there is a near perfect vacuum?a condition that is obtained on earth only with thick walls and elaborate pumps, and at great expense. As the need grows for "hard" vacuums in industrial processes on earth, the day may come when certain lightweight, easily transportable items that require a vacuum in their production?electronic tubes, computer components, hearing aids ?can be made more economically in lunar factories...
WHEN John F.Kennedy committed the U.S. to landing men on the moon before the end of this decade, virtually none of the equipment capable of making the half-million-mile journey existed. Now, eight years later, a great spaceship made of more than 15 million parts is poised for the flight. If Apollo 11 completes its momentous mission, Kennedy's pledge will have been redeemed with five months to spare-a remarkable accomplishment. It is all the more remarkable for the fact that man did not actually enter the space age until twelve years ago, when the Russians launched...