Sadly, two of the men most responsible for this moment were no longer alive to witness it themselves. President John F. Kennedy was killed two and a half years after he’d stood before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, and declared that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” On the morning of July 21, 1969, a note was found on Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery that read simply: “Mr. President. The Eagle has landed.” There’s no account of any
