Wow. There was a time when government officials wouldn't have said "no one could have foreseen this happening"?

Mr. Safire's memo surely captures the high drama of that glorious moment back in the summer of 1969. I imagine the old timers of that time recalling a similar sense of anticipation and dread, when listening to their radios, as Lucky Lindy first crossed the Atlantic in the late 1920's. Are those raised in this cynical age still capable of experiencing the joy and wonderment of such things? I dunno; but may they be so lucky.

Thanks for this. It was often rumored that a prepared speech was drafted. As a kid on Long Island, where at one time the Grumman Corporation was the single largest employer, 25,000, I had contact with some of those in aerospace as it was where the Lunar Excursion Module (L.E.M.) was built. Grumman started as a aviation machine shop, and I was told in the same tradition, parts were manufactured by various small firms, so no one place had "the big picture" as told to me by one in that part of the organizing. His son would later marry an EDO company's daughter, that company formed an alliance with Neil Armstrong's company, to bid on government contracts that now have a "high bar" to get over to bid. I thought part of the LEM "stick" housing was machined in a barn behind my folks house in Centereach, NY, having wandered in there one day and so told. Glad they landed safely!

First off; Thank God and all the great minds behind the Apollo program that such a thing never happened!

What a horrifying thought; that the astronauts would be there with no hope until the life support runs out and nothing more is heard from them. The most chilling words in that memo are "widows-to-be."

I guess Safire was just doing his duty in making such a preparation. No doubt Nixon would have been provided with the right words to say but could he convey them properly? Just weeks from now will be the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Ronald Reagan's words in the aftermath of that tragedy gave the right measure of comfort!

They couldn't type that up in a few minutes?? They had to do it in advance?? Weird.

I find this terribly interesting, but troubling along the lines of knowing that most news agencies have likewise prepared obituaries for people who are still alive. It seems bad form for any of that to ever see the light of day until it's actually needed.

Imagine if anyone HAD died on the moon -- that would be something everyone would remember for ages; just the act of looking up at it would always hold that memory that it had become a grave for someone. Sorta like how when you go to Disneyland and it always comes up how someone died on this or that ride, decades ago.