moon shot

Noun

moon shot (plural moon shots)

1. The launching of a spacecraft or an object to orbit or land on the Moon.
   • There will be many shots at the moon. Our nearest neighbor in the heavens patiently revolves around the earth, waiting for us to learn its secrets. What kind of moon shots can we use to find the answers to those secrets?1959 December, Dan Q. Posin, “An Eye on Space”, in Roderick M. Grant, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 112, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Popular Mechanics Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 70
   • Hand across the sea: Sir, Heartiest congratulations on your new 50,000-plus circulation. I regard your feat as comparable to the Russian moon shot. David P. Morgan, Editor, "Trains", Milwaukee, U.S.A.1960 April, “Letters to the Editor”, in Trains Illustrated, page 256
2. An act of throwing or hitting a ball with a high trajectory.
   • [Mickey] Mantle pounds out a moon shot in this night contest when he slams the [base]ball against the left-center facing of the second deck at Comiskey Park.1998, David S. Nuttall, “Coming of Age”, in Mickey Mantle’s Greatest Hits, New York, N.Y.: S.P.I. Books, →ISBN, page 66
   • I launch a moon shot. The [basket]ball sails up toward the hoop in slow motion. After what feels like an hour, the ball arcs downward and swishes in. The guys turn to me and applaud.2003, Alan Eisenstock, “Injured Reserve”, in Ten on Sunday: The Secret Life of Men, New York, N.Y.: Atria Books, →ISBN, page 220
3. (figuratively) An expensive, hard, or unlikely task of great potential impact.
   • We defined a moonshot as a complex, large-scale objective that can be accomplished only when teams abandon "business as usual." Moonshots require significant breakthroughs in attitude, innovation, leadership, processes, management, and technology. They demand extraordinary execution and are often...2016, Lisa Goldman, Kate Purmal, Anne Janzer, “Preface”, in The Moonshot Effect: Disrupting Business as Usual, [Austin, Tx.]: Wynnefield Business Press, →ISBN
   • Revenue at Alphabet's Other Bets division – which includes broadband business Google Fiber, home automation products Nest, self-driving cars and X, the research facility that works on "moon shot" ventures – rose 150% to $185m, while operating losses widened to $859m.2016 July 28, Nicky Woolf, “Alphabet’s revenue up to $21.5bn off the back of mobile and video ads”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 01 Mar 2017