Table of Contents
Introduction xi
01 They Blazed a Path for the Next Generation Akosua Haynes to Margot Lee Shetterly 2
02 I Am So Very Anxious to 'come Home' Betty Trier Berry Mount Wilson Observatory 5
03 The Voyager Cosmic Greeting Card Carl Sagan to Alan Lomax 9
04 Go, Johnny, Go Ann Druyan Carl Sagan to Chuck Berry 16
05 To a Top Scientist Denis Cox Woomera Rocket Range 18
06 Voyage from the Earth to the Moon Frank Borman to Jean Jules-Verne 23
07 E.T. Has Changed Tommy's Life Various to E.T. Steven Spielberg 26
08 If You are to Be, Be the First Yuri Gagarin to his family 30
09 Socialism is the Best Launching Pad for Space Flights Soviet cosmonauts to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev 34
10 The Result Would be a Catastrophe Roger Boisjoly to R. K. Lund 43
11 And Tears Don't Flow the Same in Space Frank L. Culbertson Jr to the people of Earth 46
12 Knowledge Begets Knowledge Mary Lou Reitler John F. Kennedy 50
13 Man in Space Alan Shepard to his parents 56
14 The Sun & The Comet was to Have a Fight Nellie Copeland to Dr William R. Kubinec 60
15 My Sister Says I Am an Alien Jack Davis and NASA 62
16 I Can Be Patient No Longer Jerrie Cobb to John F. Kennedy 66
17 I Am So Proud of You, Our Soviet Girl Valentina Vladimirovna Zorkina to Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova 70
18 A Highly Civilized and Intelligent Race of Beings Alexander Graham Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell 74
19 I'll Be Watching Over You Jerry Linenger to John Linenger 86
20 Confined to Earth, We Have Reached Our Limits Isaac Asimov to Adlai Stevenson 92
21 The Proverbial 'Really Good' Science-Fiction Movie Stanley Kubrick to Arthur C. Clarke 96
22 Dear Son Marion Carpenter to Malcolm Scott Carpenter 99
23 Miss Mitchell's Comet William Mitchell to William Cranch Bond 102
24 Others Believe a Poet Ought to go to the Moon Julian Scheer to George M. Low 104
25 It's the Trip of a Lifetime! Buzz Aldrin to Barry Goldman 110
26 I May Be of Some Use to the President Ray Bradbury to Arthur Schlesinger Jr 114
27 Make Pluto a Planet Again Cara Lucy O'Connor and NASA 120
28 In Event of Moon Disaster William Safire to H. R. Haldeman 126
29 I Am Clearly Suspect and Not Believable Neil Armstrong to James Whitman 130
30 Happy Birthday, Buddy Neil deGrasse Tyson to NASA 134
Permission Credits 141
Acknowledgements 143
