Randall Munroe imagined possible speeches if the Apollo 11 moon landing mission had not gone as planned

Crisis communication calls for planning ahead. Alternate history is a fiction genre that changes an event and follows the imagined consequences.

Back in 1999 William Safire described how he prepared a speech for President Richard M. Nixon to deliver if the two astronauts who landed were stranded on the moon and unable to return.

Today’s XKCD cartoon also imagined speeches for five other less plausible scenarios:

A) In event spacecraft goes missing

B) In event astronauts abscond with spacecraft

C) In event spacecraft returns with three extra astronauts

D) In event spacecraft hits U.S.S. Hornet, crushing Nixon

E) In event spacecraft accidentally sold for scrap and crushed with astronauts inside