if the first walk on the moon was the last

What America and the world would have heard if Apollo 11 ended in disaster.

When you’re the president of a nation that’s sending its citizens to walk on another world under the glaring eye of the global media, it pays to be prepared. In some cases, that preparation can be rather grim. If the first mission to land on the Moon ended in disaster and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were marooned in the Sea of Tranquility, Richard Nixon would have to deliver a short speech which ends with these haunting words:

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.