For The Record

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof:yes;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Times; mso-hansi-font-family:Times;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> --> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Recent references to the forty-fifth anniversary of the moon landing bring to mind one of my favorite journalistic correction stories. On July 17, 1969, the day after Apollo 11 took off for the moon, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> ran a correction of an article that had appeared in the paper forty-nine years earlier.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qwvrztT17Dg..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qwvrztT17Dg..." height="400" title="" width="325" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goddard and one of his early rockets.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">The original article, which appeared in 1920, mocked rocket pioneer Robert Goddard for suggesting that it would be possible to launch a rocket to the moon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The article asserted that a rocket could not operate in a vacuum, and belittled Goddard’s understanding of basic science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div>“That Professor Goddard, with his “chair” in Clark College, and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to reaction , and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react—to say that would be absurd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Goddard survived this assault on his scientific acumen, going on to launch the world’s first liquid powered rocket in 1926.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>His work helped pave the way for the space program of the 1960’s. With three men actually rocketing their the way to the moon, the <i>Times</i> decided it was time to rectify their sarcastic assault on Goddard from a half century before.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">“It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum,” stated the correction, with admirable understatement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">“The <i>Times</i> regrets the error.”</div>