40 years ago today, Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on another planet.
It had only been 11 years since Alan Sheppard had flown into space for a grand total of five minutes, atop a glorified bottle rocket. Cernan and his crewmates Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt spent three days on the Moon.
To quote Tom Hanks (as Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell), "It's not a miracle. We just decided to go."
Man's reach must exceed his grasp, else what's a heaven for?
