“Rocket ship to reach the moon must be five miles long”
Anyone seriously contemplating a trip to the moon by space ship is advised by a Canadian scientist that a rocket vehicle capable of a round trip must be at least as massive as 29,000-foot Mount Everest. Dr. J. W. Campbell of the University of Alberta reached this conclusion by mathematical studies.
An excerpt from a 1942 New England Almanac my mother just sent me in the mail.