Ad astra.

It was only 65 years from the Wright Brothers first airplane flight in 1903 to landing on the moon. Other stats: Peak speed: 24,000 mph! Distance to moon (“as the crow flies,” ha, ha): 240,000 miles. Total mission distance: 953,054 miles. Splashdown in Pacific Ocean. Picked up by aircraft carrier CV Hornet.

Open return, they were quarantined 21 days in basically an Airstream Trailer that had been upgraded to the tune of $8 million! Not bad for a towed RV. White mice were introduced into the trailer, allowed to play in the lunar rocks, etc., to see if they died or not. If the mice stayed alive, then that would bode well for the astronauts. If the mice died, then… uh oh… But I think we can guess how that ended. 