Space Cases

It was back in 1959 that the original seven astronauts appeared on the cover of Life Magazine, the paragon of dashing good looks and symbols of moral rectitude. Even then there was a widespread suspicion that image was more important than substance. One can't deny the courage of those early pioneers, allowing themselves to be strapped into a tin can smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle and exploded hundreds of miles to the edge of space, not to mention eventually being hurled into a trajectory that took them to the moon. Thinking back, I still get chills when I recall the long heart-stopping silence followed by Neil Amstrong's words "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." I think the first almost imperceptible crack in the armor of perfection came hours later, when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and flubbed his carefully crafted and rehearsed line, which came out, "One small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind." It was supposed to be "one small step for a man," and though NASA has insisted ever since he got it right, the evidence is on the tape. It was downhill from there, and now we have news out of Houston that gives new meaning to the aphorism, "the higher you get, the further you have to fall."