I saw the Falcon booster land
The world is new and brave
I have to think that old Von Braun
Is singing in his grave
It settled on its landing pad
Tall and straight it stood
Just the way those films he made
With Disney said it would
And Goddard must be smiling
Having seen the exegesis
Dismantling the New York Times
For slandering his thesis
Their sneering editorial
A stain they can’t erase
Smugly claimed that rocketry
Would never work in space
So, we ignored his insights
Just like he never said them
But in Russia and in Germany
You can bet, they read them
I ought to mention Korolev
As part of this discussion
If Stalin hadn’t purged him
We might all be speaking Russian
Exiled to Kolyma
A place that sounds so foreign
Reprieved to put in orbit
Both the Sputnik and Gagarin
So look into the heavens
So alluring and so vast
The promise of the future
Was imagined in the past
Tomorrow may be brighter
Than the skeptics make it seem
The world is full of wonder
And we’re still allowed to dream