The MOCR was jammed with people, waving small flags and smoking the traditional splashdown cigars. The large center screen, which for the past eight days had been showing trajectories to the moon and lunar-orbital tracks, went black. In a moment, it lit again, with these words: I believe 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 earth. —John F. Kennedy to Congress, May 1961 Since Columbia had splashed down, the right-hand screen had been displaying the mission patch of Apollo 11. As the
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