I don’t know why this struck me today, but I came across William Safire’s drafted and (thankfully) never-used speech in the event of a disaster on the moon landing. He wrote up a speech for H.R. Haldeman for President Nixon to use if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were trapped on the moon during the Apollo 11 landing.
It opens, “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace,” and then continues: “In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.”
The magic and idea of space exploration is something that has always appealed to me. On my fridge I have a comic from some Sunday a few years ago that recites the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie McGee, Jr.:
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
I just love that opening line. “Surly bonds of earth.”
On my list of things to do in life is to see the curvature darkness of space. Maybe thanks to Richard Branson, I’ll be able to do that someday.
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