Who is Michael Collins?

July 20, 2005, 11:01 am

Wikipedia featured the Apollo 11 landing on the main page today (since it is the anniversary). When I was a little kid, I was really into space stuff. I stil have this book that I got for Christmas when I was five that has all these awesome pictures in it of the Moon landings and stuff.

And I was thinking how sad it was that I couldn't remember the name of the astronaut that had to stay in the Command Module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got to walk on the Moon. His name is Michael Collins:

He was described, at that time, as "the loneliest person on or off the planet" - when the Command Module was on the opposite side of the moon, he was at least two thousand miles away from his fellow astronauts, and over two hundred thousand from the rest of the population back on Earth.

Wow.

The Apollo 11 entry also has a contingency memo that President Nixon was to have read in the event of a disaster:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the Moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

I can't imagine what it was like for the guy that had to write that... to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I wonder if Neil or Buzz have read it. That must be really weird.