It was midmorning on May 5, 1961. U.S. President John F. Kennedy, his wife and a group of his closest associates in Government stood in a White House office room, their gaze fastened upon a television screen. Like millions of Americans in millions of other homes, they held their breath, crossed their fingers and prayed as they watched the Redstone rocket belch flame on its Cape Canaveral firing pad, lift off with maddening slowness, then streak magnificently southward.
In a sense, the sight was familiar—similar rockets had taken off many times before;...
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