* Astronomy

Shortly before the Apollo 11 mission, perched on its massive Saturn rocket, thundered off from Cape Kennedy to accomplish its historic manned landing on the Moon in July 1969, there was a singular encounter you don't often hear about. A protest group of some 300 members of the Poor People's Campaign, led by the civil rights activist and pastor Ralph Abernathy, approached the launch site, bringing with them mules as symbols of rural poverty.
Abernathy pointed out to onlookers that, while many billions of dollars had been spent in achieving this moment, a fifth of Americans lacked adequate food, clothing and medical care. The NASA PR machine swung into action and Abernathy and a contingent of protesters were invited to watch the launch as guests of the space agency. The somewhat bemused pastor was asked to pray for the safety of the astronauts and, interviewed after the launch, commented: "I'm happy that we're going to the Moon; but I'd be even happier if we had learned to live together here on Earth."

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