CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/17/2017

Fathers Day Favorite: The Moon 1968–1972

Let's hear it for science! On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered an exceptionally optimistic speech laying out his plan to send Americans to the Moon. Before 35,000 people gathered at the Rice University football stadium, he concluded, "Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there.' Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked." This text excerpt and Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan's 1972 photograph of Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt alongside "Tracy’s Rock" are reproduced from T. Adler's elegant Fathers Day favorite, The Moon 1968–1972.