Description of 1783 Balloon Launch Could Have Been Written for Tomorrow's Shuttle Flight

 "On this day, before the eyes of an enormous gathering two men rose into the air...Two hundred thousand men, lifting their hands in wonder, admiring, glad, astonished; some in tears for fear the intrepid physicists should come to harm, some on their knees overcome with emotion, but all following the aeronauts in spirit...What with the novelty, the dignity of the experiment, the unclouded sky, welcoming as it were the travelers to his own element, the attitude of the two men sailing into the blue, while below their fellow-citizens prayed and feared for their safety, and lastly the balloon itself, superb in the sunlight, whirling aloft like a planet or the chariot of some weather-god-it was a moment which never can be repeated, the most astounding achievement the science of physics has yet given the world."

-Sebastien Mercier, the first utopian writer to link technology's ability to ease humanity's burdens to peace, 1783