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Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership. Ed. by Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. x, 262 pp. Cloth, $36.95, ISBN 0252-02336-6. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-25206632-4.)
Although the United States is currently planning a manned mission to Mars, the American public is not half as thrilled by this daring enterprise as it was in the 1960s during the preparations for the first manned landing on the moon. Many remember John E Kennedy's famous words of his State of the Union message from May 25,1961: "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." This commitment and everything that went with it later on is like a thread through the many essays compiled by Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy for their book, Spaceflight and the Myth...