James Mann, who's working on a book about Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, writes in today's WashPost Outlook section that in the days before the moon landing — 50 years ago next Saturday — "there were acute fears of a mishap":
"Officials in the White House and at NASA laid out lugubrious contingency plans in case astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, but then were unable to get off the surface and back to the space capsule.”
