Word: moons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...mistake the unfamiliar for the unprecedented. What happened on Jupiter was obviously massive, but comparisons are impossible. What little we know about the universe includes the fact that it is an incredibly violent place. The nighttime sky is a panoply of explosions. The pocked and cratered face of our moon -- which was also on TV last week, thanks to a triumphant moment everyone had seen 25 years ago -- bears mute witness to eons of shuddering collisions. Given what we may infer from such signs, the pummeling of Jupiter could have been a commonplace affair...
Maybe on this anniversary our task is to question again. Where's our new moon? And who are the men and women to take us there...
...moon legacy leaves a daunting question. Why can we not find such a national project in today's contentious world that would give us a common purpose? What about a fleet of hypersonic transport planes that would move Moscow and Tokyo as close as Chicago? "Too many hands stirring the pot," says Keith Glennan, the first director of NASA. He remembers the daring and boldness of the leaders back then and fears that those qualities can no longer be found in a political system that seems to honor timidity. Why not health care or welfare reform or the elimination...
...faded outside, and the lights over the South Lawn came on as the discussion wound down. "There's nothing more important," Kennedy said quietly as he got up to leave. But what of the final commitment to go for the moon? I asked as he left the room. "Wait here," he said, beckoning Sorensen to follow him into the Oval Office. A few minutes later, Sorensen came out. "We are going to the moon," he said. So simple. But the decision committed the greatest power on earth to the unknown...
Just a couple of months before his death, Kennedy went to Cape Canaveral to view the first stage of the giant Saturn rocket. Even as his scientists argued off to the side about how to land men on the moon, the President for a moment stood alone beneath the huge booster casing, rocked back on his heels and stared up. For those seconds, I could see he was beyond the earth, above the quibbling technicians. He was riding with history. I think he knew it was going to work...