The Moon: Apollo: Where Is Its Poetry?

NOT since the tragic fire that killed three astronauts on the launch pad in 1967 has NASA's morale been so low or its future so bleak. The signs are all too apparent: shops are shuttered in Florida's once-booming Brevard County, the home of Cape Kennedy. Thousands of engineers and technicians are out of work in Southern California and other aerospace centers. Last week, even as Apollo 15 streaked to the moon, Congress sent the White House a compromise $3.27 billion NASA appropriations bill—$1.9 billion below the allocations of the space agency's heyday.

The...

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