Reader\'s Digest Australia - 07.2019

34 | July• 2019

T

he blast-off from Florida

was almost f lawless, and

the spacecraft was hurtling

towards its rendezvous with the

moon. Inside, the intrepid ‘aero-

nauts’ arose from their ‘couches’

and decided that now was the time

for a bit of celebration. One of them

produced a bottle of Burgundy and

they toasted happily the “union of

the earth and her satellite”.

TRIP TO

THE MOON

J u l e s Ve r n e’s

Writing 104 years before the first moon

landing, this imaginative author uncannily

predicted details of a rocket ship

This incident occurred not during

the flight ofApollo 11, but 104 years

prior – 154 years ago – in the fertile im-

agination of a French author named

Jules Verne (1828-1905). Writing in

1865, Verne described a trip (From

the Earth to the MoonandAround the

Moon)which bears remarkable simi-

larities toApollo 11’s mission.

Verne’s space capsule contained

three men – two Americans and

50TH ANNIVERSARY
LUNAR LANDING

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES

BY WILLIAM A.H. BIRNIE