In event of moon disaster :

[zotz]

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

There was an interesting article in the paper yesterday about risk. It started with an excerpt from a speech apparently written just before the Apollo 11 landing by William Safire, for Richard Nixon to read to the world if for any reason the two astronauts were not able to leave the moon's surface. I can't find an official copy of this, but it doesn't seem to be disputed anywhere I can see.

Anyway, the text is here.

Comments

[lsur.livejournal.com]

At the time, I was too young to be critical or aware of events. They just formed the background to my life, like wallpaper or music. Events since must mean as much to those who are young now whereas older people (in my own experience anyway) are more distanced from them.

The 60s certainly were romanticised. The creepy thing is reading up on them as an adult and seeing just how gruesome the reality was. I wouldn't say that was a special time compared to now, though one could perhaps argue that they left a legacy on life since, eg civil rights, space exploration and music, which is possibly not the case with today's events. Maybe everyone has 'their' war, whether it be Iraq or Vietnam and that forms a reference point for what follows.

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean; for me, it was the gulf war when i was growing up. It was interesting at the time, but i wasn't really fully aware of what was going on, or able to be particularly critical of it. Seems a bit different now.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

For those of us who were active then, the reality was a bizarre mixture of heady optimism and grim danger. We were conscious that parts of humanity were changing their outlooks in ways that were probably irreversible. At the same time, we knew that our foes were unscrupulous bastards not above shooting a few of us now and then pour encourager les autres. It's "romantic" only in the way that NSTIW war stories are romantic; at the time, it was terror and exhilaration inextricably blended.