Friday, December 14, 2012

Apollo 17 - 40 years, and still waiting

Colleagues,

40 years ago today, Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on another planet.



It had only been 11 years since Alan Sheppard had flown into space for a grand total of five minutes, atop a glorified bottle rocket. Cernan and his crewmates Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt spent three days on the Moon.

To quote Tom Hanks (as Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell), "It's not a miracle.  We just decided to go."

Man's reach must exceed his grasp, else what's a heaven for?