From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] A sad space anniversary
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019 18:01:28 -0400 (EDT)

Today marks a sad space anniversary, at least for Americans.  Nobody
else seems to have noticed it.

It was 2998 days from when the US launched the first American into
space (Alan Shepard, on May 5, 1961, on a suborbital trajectory) until
the US landed men on the Moon (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July
20, 1969).

Today marks 2998 days since the US last launched anyone into space
(the final Space Shuttle flight, July 8, 2011).  Americans have
been to space since then -- some are there now -- but they were all
launched by the Russians.