July 20, 2009

摘要

Anniversary celebrations by their nature look backward, but I hope that on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we Americans will consider what that achievement can mean for us today. At the National Air and Space Museum, home of the Wright Flyer as well as hundreds of Apollo program artifacts, we're reminded daily that the span from the first flight by the Wright brothers to the first steps on the moon was only 66 years (see In the Museum, p. 15). The pace of that technological advance has never been matched. The industry that took that magnificent stride was formed in two world wars and in the years between them, when competition, in the form of national and international air races, spurred exponential progress.