Liliputins - 485

Before being shot and killed in Dallas JFK was shooting for the moon ... "
Richard Nixon

Liliputins. What, the heck, is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/



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 Definition of “shoot for the moon” - English Dictionary

 English

 "shoot for the moon" in British English

 reach for the stars
 
 Also found in: Acronyms, Wikipedia.

 reach for the stars

 To set one's goals or ambitions very high; to try to attain or achieve something particularly difficult.

  My parents always taught me to reach for the stars when I was growing up—that I could be anything I set my mind to! With all that money, you could do whatever you want. Reach for the stars, kiddo!

 See also: reach, star
 
  See all translations

 to shoot the moon
 German
 sich bei Nacht davonmachen idiom
 to shoot for the moon [Am.]
 nach den Sternen greifen idiom
 to shoot for the moon [idiom]
 sich Dat. Grosses vornehmen
 

 shoot for the moon
 US

 to ask for the best or the most you could hope for:

 You might as well shoot for the moon and ask for a promotion as well as a raise.
   
 (Definition of shoot for the moon from the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press
      
 
 That can easily be found in dictionaries: Shoot for the moon: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/shoot-for-the-moon – Josh61 Oct 9 '15 at 9:28
   
 
 "Shoot for the moon" or shoot the moon? What is the context? What have you already looked up? (If it's "shoot the moon", that Wiktionary link shows two diametrically-opposed meanings) – Andrew Leach Oct 9 '15 at 9:30
       
 
 @AndrewLeach . "We should work hard and play hard.Our product specification should be shoot for the moon". – Naveen Kumar Oct 9 '15 at 9:35
   
 
 Aim high.(set your goal very high despite the fact that the chances of achieving the goal might not be too good) – Nikita Shrivastava Oct 9 '15 at 9:36

 While it is true that a simple search on the Internet by the author of this question may have provided an answer, the more interesting point this question raises is whether there is any possibility of misinterpretation, and the answer to that is both no and yes.

 'Shoot the Moon' was an expression describing the act of what we might today call 'doing a bunk' As the good folk over at Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=shoot) explain:


 To shoot the moon originally meant "depart by night with ones goods to escape back rent" (1829).

 O, 'tis cash makes such crowds to the gin shops roam,
  And 'tis cash often causes a rumpus at home;
  'Tis when short of cash people oft shoot the moon;
  And 'tis cash always keeps our pipes in tune.
  Cash! cash! &c.

 ["The Melodist and Mirthful Olio, An Elegant Collection of the Most Popular Songs," vol. IV, London, 1829]

 The Oxford English Dictionary also has:


 d. to shoot the moon: to remove household goods by night in order to avoid seizure for rent. (Cf. the older phrase in shove v.1 10 c.) 1836 Comic Almanack Sept. (1870) 63 And lack-a-day! here's Quarter Day; It always comes too soon; So we by night must take our flight, For we must shoot the moon! 1844 Alb. Smith Mr. Ledbury iii, Gradually moving all his things away, and shooting the moon to a friend's lodging. 1882 Besant All Sorts iv, I let his houses... I warned him when shooting of moons seemed likely.

 Shoot for the Moon however has a distinct history as an expression of hopeless or sometimes inspired endeavour. But it has deeper roots than we might expect. Shooting at the Moon (with arrows) is a common theme in folk tales as diverse as those of the North American Indians, and those of Vietnam (see: and In English the term has long usage, as the OED describes (note that tire a la volee is French for 'shoot the Moon'):


 f. in certain proverbial phrases. Obs. 1530 Palsgr. 704/2, I shote at all adventures, or at the unhappyest, Je tire a la vol;e. 1577 F. de L'isle's Legendarie G iij b, Now in making warre against the Protestants, they shotte sundry wayes with owne selfe arrowe. 1624 Massinger Renegado v. iii, Neither can I Be wonne to thinke, but if I should attempt it, I shoote against the Moone.

 In the modern Western canon the use of the term can not but have been further inspired by the Jules Verne novel 'From the Earth to the Moon' which portrayed the efforts of a group of ex-Civil War gun manufacturers to blast a man-carrying projectile from the Earth to the Moon.

 But clearly in the case of the original question posed here, the sense of 'shooting the Moon' is not meant to suggest futile endeavour, as was the traditional interpretation of the phrase, but rather to suggest the promise of astronomical success following the appropriate effort.
 

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 Quotes  Quotable Quote
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“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

Norman Vincent Peale
 



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NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
 NASA History Office

The Decision to Go to the Moon:
 President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech
before a Joint Session of Congress

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. A number of political factors affected Kennedy's decision and the timing of it. In general, Kennedy felt great pressure to have the United States "catch up to and overtake" the Soviet Union in the "space race." Four years after the Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the U.S. While Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, he only flew on a short suborbital flight instead of orbiting the Earth, as Gagarin had done. In addition, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in mid-April put unquantifiable pressure on Kennedy. He wanted to announce a program that the U.S. had a strong chance at achieving before the Soviet Union. After consulting with Vice President Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the U.S. actually had a potential lead. Thus the cold war is the primary contextual lens through which many historians now view Kennedy's speech.
The decision involved much consideration before making it public, as well as enormous human efforts and expenditures to make what became Project Apollo a reality by 1969. Only the construction of the Panama Canal in modern peacetime and the Manhattan Project in war were comparable in scope. NASA's overall human spaceflight efforts were guided by Kennedy's speech; Projects Mercury (at least in its latter stages), Gemini, and Apollo were designed to execute Kennedy's goal. His goal was achieved on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module's ladder and onto the Moon's surface.
In honor of Kennedy's historic speech, below are some documents and other information relating to the decision to go to the Moon and Project Apollo that we hope you find useful.

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A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned (robotic) missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959.[3]

The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969.[4] There have been six manned U.S. landings (between 1969 and 1972) and numerous unmanned landings, with no soft landings happening from 22 August 1976 until 14 December 2013.

To date, the United States is the only country to have successfully conducted manned missions to the Moon, with the last departing the lunar surface in December, 1972.

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Quotes  Quotable Quote
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“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

Norman Vincent Peale