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Lunar Property Available Near Crater Cronkite
 New
York USA (18 September 2009 LT) — The Lunar Republic Society has
announced that a crater on Luna, Earth’s Moon, will be named to
honor the renowned broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite.
Mr. Cronkite, who passed away on 17 July 2009,
served as anchorman on the CBS Evening News from 1962 until
1981. During his tenure, he earned the reputation as “the most
trusted man in America” for his reporting on news events ranging
from the assassination of United States President John F.
Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Nixon-Watergate scandal and the
hostage crisis in Iran.
Notably, Mr. Cronkite reported extensively on the
United States space program, of which he was more than a casual
observer. His interest in the effort to land humans on the Moon
reached its apex with the successful Apollo XI mission in July
1969.
Mr. Cronkite anchored television coverage of U.S.
spaceflights beginning with the Mercury program in 1962, through
the Gemini and Apollo programs, culminating with the Space
Shuttle program in 1981, and spanning his nearly two-decade run
at the CBS News anchor desk.
In recognition of his support of the United
States space program, Mr. Cronkite was named an Ambassador of
Exploration by NASA in 2006, receiving a Moon rock sample in
recognition of his role as both reporter and advocate.
Mr. Cronkite was born on 4 November 1916 in
Kansas City, Missouri, but grew up in Houston, Texas, which
later became the site of the key NASA mission control center. He
began his broadcasting career in the mid-1930s at WKY Radio in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and then joined the United Press as a
reporter in 1937. Mr. Cronkite reached prominence as a news
correspondent during World War II, covering major battles in
Europe and North Africa. He left UP for CBS-TV’s fledgling news
division, under the direction of Edward R. Murrow, in 1950.
The crater being named to honor Mr. Cronkite was
formerly known as Sabine C, and is located at 1.0° South, 23.0°
East on the so-called Lunar nearside. It measures approximately
three kilometers in diameter and is estimated to have a depth of
350 meters below the Lunar surface, at an elevation of 5,068
meters. Significantly, the crater lies adjacent to the Apollo XI
landing site, in view of craters previously renamed for mission
crew members Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael
Collins.
Crater Cronkite is part of the Sabine crater
group, named for General Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., F.R.S.
(1788-1883), an Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist
and explorer. The designation honoring Walter Cronkite becomes
effective immediately.
The official designation of a Lunar crater is a
singular honor bestowed upon only a select few luminaries. Among
those receiving this rare tribute over the past century are
Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton,
Julius Caesar and Jules Verne.
 The Lunar Republic Society is the world's largest
and most prominent group advocating privatized exploration,
settlement and development of Earth's Moon. The centerpiece of
the Society's effort is a ten-year, US$3.8-million program to
return humans to the Moon and establish permanent bases there.
The Society has also developed the most
successful commercially-available lunar photomap software ever
released to the public, the Full Moon Atlas (http://www.fullmoonatlas.com),
and successfully advocated the removal of a crater named for an
accused Nazi war criminal, Dr. Hans Eppinger, Jr., by the
International Astronomical Union.
The Society was the prime mover behind the
proposal to designate a group of Lunar craters as a memorial to
the seven crew members who perished in the 2003 Space Shuttle
Columbia (STS-107) tragedy. (See
http://www.lunarrepublic.com/news/columbia_region.shtml)
The Lunar Republic Society is a registered
International Business Company (IBC #519589) currently
authorized to operate in more than 200 nations around the world,
including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
Germany, Spain, France, China, Japan and India, as well as all
other nations in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The Society's main operations hubs are in Hong
Kong and on the Isle of Man (U.K.). It maintains a satellite
office in Manhattan for business operations in the Americas.
# # #
CRONKITE CRATER INFORMATION SUMMARY:
Eponym: Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (Sabine C)
Location:
Southern Mare Tranquillitatis (1.0° N 23.0° E)
Approximate Crater Diameter: ~3.0 kilometers
Crater Depth: ~350 meters
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Cronkite Crater Media Coverage
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