Are We Slowing Down?

Three years passed between the first transcontinental airmail service and the establishment of the first transcontinental airline. (“Airmail creates an industry.” National Postal Museum, Smithsonian, 2004; “From mail-sack seats to sleeping berths and above-cloud routes,” Boeing Frontiers.)

Twelve years passed between the Soviets’ first rocket and the Americans’ Moon landing. (The R-7 intercontinental missile launched in 1957. The Moon landing took place in 1969.)

Forty-four years have passed since the last time humans were on the Moon. (Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, holds the distinction of being the last person to set foot on the Moon, December 14, 1972. See the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum website, AirandSpace.si.edu.)