An American rocket has a fine debut; not so the Moon lander on board

ON THE MORNING of January 8th America tried for the first time in more than 50 years to launch a spacecraft designed to touch down gently on the Moon. The previous attempt, in 1972, was one of the great space-age spectaculars. The Apollo 17 mission was the only time a Saturn V, until last year the most powerful rocket ever to reach orbit, took off at night; Challenger, the lander it put on the Moon, was home to two astronauts for more than three days of lunar exploration, the longest ever such sojourn.