EIGHT years and $24 billion after John F. Kennedy challenged his countrymen to become "pioneers in a space project," the U.S. is poised to put men on the moon. Yet even as they stand on the threshold of success, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are in a state of public stoicism and private gloom. Their triumph has become their travail: having progressed from orbiting a 31.5-lb. Explorer satellite to the Apollo lunar landing program, they are like showmen who brought off a spectacularly successful act and are now having trouble...
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