Minutes after they reached the deck of the Lake Champlain, Astronauts Cooper and Conrad were seen, bearded and smiling, on TV screens across the nation. The images were not live TV pickups, which were not feasible due to technical difficulties. But they were the next best thing: still pictures transmitted almost instantly.
At first the TV screen turned all grey. Then the image took shape, teasingly, as if appearing from behind a slow-parting curtain that moved from left to right. While faint beep-beep-beeps were heard in the background, the picture grew in a series of vertical lines.
In less than a minute,...
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