One Giant Leap, 2019

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon, by Charles Fishman, published on June 11, 2019.

This is well researched book. When USSR sent their Sputnik I  to the space in 1957, US played catch up game. Vice President LBJ tried to recruit a man to head NASA, 19 qualified men had refused. The 20th was prepared to do the same. But by then, Lyndon Johnson had perfected his pitch and won James Webb (1906–92) over, who served as the second administrator for seven years.

The ensuing years, the Americans tried … JFK’s moon shot speech … but they were being laughed at, even the Vatican joined in. Chairman Mao went to Moscow to help the big brother to celebrate. All that ended when 1969, Neil Armstrong stopped on the Moon and said, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

…

It’s 2021, will America be a united mind to achieve something greater?

One Giant Leap (2019) by Charles Fishman [强]

好书一本. 冷战间 苏联抢先上天
捶胸顿足
1961 甘迺迪一声令下 小美奋起直追

苏联Sputnik 1957 发射到椭圆形近地轨道
Apollo 11 阿波罗 1969 把人送上月球

… 副总统找人出任NASA. 19个人都推辞不肯;第20位 Webb (1906-92)也准备推脱. 但小副的游说有进步 被感动 出任
… 那时 送人上天的机器好简陋 效率还不如现在的微波炉或者洗碗机
… 不仅苏联嘲笑小美 (俺们的都比你们强…)全世界都 连梵蒂冈也忍不住出声讽刺 毛主席赶去莫斯科帮助老大哥一起庆祝… 真是墙倒众人推
… 起飞前 几乎忘记带上那面国旗

尼尔·阿姆斯庄的 “人的一小步, 人类的一大步” 流芳后世.

失笑之外 作者一丝不苟的资料和流畅的描写 引人入胜. 他用了很多篇幅谈上天的目的和地缘政治 也强调今天的科技 电脑 integrated circuit (集成电路?) … 都是源于这个月球之旅.

2021 众志成城 还会再现吗?