Houston, have we a problem?

It's, well, maybe not exactly common knowledge, but not exactly a secret that speechwriters do a lot of work which never gets used. Especially the political ones.

On an election night, for example, a politician won't wait to see how the night unfolds and then tell his speechwriter to write something that fits. Instead, the speechwriter will work on at least two speeches - one for if the candidate wins, another for if the candidate loses.

There could be more speeches, too - if it's somebody running for Prime Minister of Canada, they'll want specific speeches for winning a majority, winning a minority government, losing with a minority, and so on. No stone can be left unturned. (A last-season episode of The West Wing showed just how ridiculous this can get, as Santos' chief speechwriter was given dozens of scenarios, including winning certain states, certain demographics, and so forth.)

It's not just about the elections, though. If Americans get kidnapped abroad and the CIA mounts a rescue mission, the President's speechwriters are given two assignments - one for if the rescue is successful, and one for if it isn't.

And now we finally get to the point of this post. Nearly forty years ago (only a few months to go), the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon. One small step for man and all that. But President Nixon also had a speech ready for if the Apollo 11 astronauts were left stranded on the moon.

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace," would be my favourite of the lines excerpted in the linked article.

It's probably my occasional fascination with alternate history at work here, but I really enjoy seeing things like this. This is what would have really happened, try and imagine what would come next. More moon missions? A backlash against the space program? If so, only in America, or would the Russians keep theirs going?

Anyhow, something I thought was neat.

--Ryan