The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is July 20th. America won the race to the moon, cemented itself as the preeminent superpower during the Cold War, opened the minds and imaginations of generations, and gave name to what can be accomplished when you attempt something so far beyond the realm of accepted possibilities—a moonshot.
Literally millions and millions of things had to go right for Apollo 11 to make it safely to the moon and back. Among those small victories were numerous defeats as well. Overcoming those defeats in the pursuit of success only added to the tally in the “things that went right” column.
It baffles the mind to even try to conceive of how monumental the task at hand was for NASA. Yet they expertly broke it down into tasks and sub-tasks and checklists and documents and procedures, and got it done.
When you know that failure will cost human lives, good humans act with purpose. They are so purposeful, in fact, that they are prepared to snatch success from the jaws of defeat when catastrophe strikes, like they did nine months later with Apollo 13.
Things go right when people care enough to make them go right.
