A rumor has for months been suggesting that President Bush may announce
during a trip to Kitty Hawk this coming Wednesday, December 17th, the 100th
anniversary of first flight by the Wright Brothers, a new space initiative, possibly
to engage in new manned voyages to the Moon or even to Mars.

I truly don't know if this is accurate or not, but stay tuned. If so, it was
21 years ago exactly now that we last went to the Moon in Apollo 17 (December
7 to 19, 1972). The picture I took of the launch, when I was much younger, is
at:

     http://aics-research.com/apollo17.html

If we go again, it will be a few more years yet before we get there.

To me, one of the most interesting statistics is that the time between Kitty
Hawk and the Sea of Tranquility was only 66 years -- and that the operational
lifetime of the relatively recent Boeing 777 airframe was designed for 70
years of service.

Wirt Atmar

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