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Linked to the 1999 celebration* for good reason - the only substantial changes between the 30th celebration of the Eighth Wonder Of The Race and the 40th are the Columbia disaster and one massive political clusterfuck.
That we could celebrate the 50th - or even the 60th - with {Astronauts|Cosmonauts|Othernauts} triggering fireworks from the Lunar surface, I hope for.
While I'm at it, I'd like to be published, debt-free, and receiving a massage from the women's Swedish volleyball team, snorkeling whiskey through a straw made out of compressed cocaine while floating in a in a private pool in the Himalayas. That this fantasy seems more readily achievable** than a Lunar revisit is...
... well, it is what it is.
We came. We saw. We left.
I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.
--Neil Armstrong; CBS interview, 2005 ( source)
NASA continues to insist we'll return, using the same tone of voice one uses when promising ones least-favorite relative that you'll call them soon. In the meantime, they continue to focus on the Good Old Days like a fifty year old four hundred pound ex-cheerleader with six kids, living a John Waters flashback to Junior Varsity, hoping she'll get to fuck the quarterback under the bleachers after practice. Some day.
* What http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/introduction.htm links to as of this posting. Last update? 2002.
** Well under a million, all-in. Quite a bit more if we're stipulating a sustainable lifestyle, as opposed to a Weekend Of Awesome. The availability of the Swedish Volleyball Team is the key concern with regards to this matter. After the passport, this fantasy can be realized with money. Getting back to the moon isn't a matter of money - it's a matter of politics.
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