Space: Moonward Bound

Startled by the noise, a flock of geese flapped across the cloudy sky, momentarily breaking their V-formation. Below, pulsating pressure waves beat against the faces and chests of reporters sitting in an open grandstand. In the launch-control center, as plaster dust from the ceiling fell around him and technicians wildly cheered, Wernher von Braun breathed, "Go, baby, go. " And in a portable CBS News studio, Commentator Walter Cronkite pressed his hands against a trembling plate-glass window and, in a voice distorted by excitement and vibration, shouted to a nationwide TV audience: "Oh,...

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