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APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUT Michael Collins returned to the exact spot where he flew to the moon 50 years ago with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin today.
Collins, who had the spotlight to himself following a cancellation by Aldrin and the death of Armstrong in 2012, said he wished his two moonwalking colleagues were there to share the moment at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
“[It's a] wonderful feeling to be back,” the 88-year-old said on NASA TV.
“There’s a difference this time. I want to turn and ask Neil a question and maybe tell Buzz Aldrin something, and of course, I’m here by myself.”
At NASA’s invitation, Collins marked the precise moment — 9.32am on 16 July, 1969 — that the Saturn V rocket blasted off.
He was seated at the base of the pad alongside Kennedy’s director, Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander.
Collins recalled the tension surrounding the crew that day.
“Apollo 11… was serious business. We, crew, felt the weight of the world on our shoulders.
“We knew that everyone would be looking at us, friend or foe, and we wanted to do the best we possibly could,” he said.
Collins never made it to the moon, because he remained in lunar orbit, tending to the Columbia ship while Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the Eagle on 20 July, 1969, and spent two and a half hours walking on the lunar surface.
The reunion kicked off a week of celebrations marking each day of Apollo 11′s eight-day voyage, and NASA televised the original launch video of Apollo 11, timed down to the second.
Collins also spoke about NASA’s next programme to land on the moon, Artemis, named after the twin sister of Greek mythology’s Apollo.
The agency plans to put the first woman and next man on the lunar surface by 2024.
Collins said he likes the name Artemis and, even more, likes the concept behind Artemis.
“But I don’t want to go back to the moon,” he said. “I want to go direct to Mars. I call it the JFK Mars Express.”
Collins noted that the moon-first crowd has merit to its argument and he pointed out Armstrong himself was among those who believed returning to the moon “would assist us mightily in our attempt to go to Mars”.
With reporting from Associated Press.
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He took an incredible photo while there.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/michael-collins-picture-1969/
@Clifford Brennan: brilliant thanks
@Clifford Brennan: At the time Collins wrote: “If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two…”. And fifty years later the score would be 7.6 billion (plus two).
@Earth Traveller: not to mention that the genetic material of anyone that ever lived or will live is in that as well
Never happened.
@Liam McLiam: loser
@Liam McLiam: Idiot.
@Liam McLiam: Worst trolling ever
@Liam McLiam: go away
@Liam McLiam: gowl bag!!!!
@Liam McLiam:
Yawn…..
@Liam McLiam:
Yawn.
@Liam McLiam: i need to hear some more
@Liam McLiam: pass it on the commute to the death star everyday. Sure it’s only down the road
Michael Collins’s grandfather emigrated from Dunmanway, West Cork. Michael Collins should be honoured in Cork.
@Liam Lally: could lead to confusion.
@Liam Lally: I’d say hes afraid,after what ye did to the last lad….
No mention of Tom Hanks either.
Can you only imagine the adventure these guys went on…. to sit on top of a rocket that wasn’t that safe, going to somewhere not one other person had been to before…. and then for Collins, to be left alone not knowing that his crew might not return. Don’t mind their families. Hats off to them all…. Hope I see them back there in my lifetime. Footage would be so much better now.
The biggest hoax of all time.
Just build a rocket go up to the moon, jump around for a few hours and head home again no problem for people in america 50 years ago!
Its long past time for the moon visitors to come clean.
@Michael Maher: You Sad Little Man
@Michael Maher: you’d have to feel sorry for people who believe it never happened. Sad, pathetic people over compensating for their lack of self worth by thinking they’re more clever than the rest of us.
400 000 people were involved in the Apollo program and not one of them had a guilty conscience and ‘come clean’ in the intervening years. Americas arch rivals, the Russians, tracked the entire mission and never called foul. You’re a sad person, Michael.
@Michael Maher: I’m recruiting for a position at the moment. I think I’ll ask them if they think the moon landings were faked. Instant idiot detection method!
@Reg: good plan
@James Wallace: I am quiet happy James just not convinced.
Do you believe in a religion just because everyone else does
@Reg: Is Doogle not an idiot
@Karl: I am far from being little and I would not lower myself to name calling.
@Michael Maher: I dont believe in any religion but I believe in facts, like the fact that they went to the moon. If you’re not convinced then it’s because you haven’t researched it enough. The conspiracy theory that they never went just does not stand up to serious scrutiny. For one thing, it requires 400 000 people to keep a vow of silence for over 50 years. Knowing human nature, do you believe even that is possible? It’s not. The country that lost the space race and with the most to achieve by proving it’s fake, accept that it happened. Why? Because they tracked it in real time.
@Michael Maher: you don’t have to believe it, you don’t have to believe it becaise others do. The difference between the moon landing and religion is that there are thousands of pieces of evidence and millions of witnesses for the moon landing.
@Dave O’Keeffe: Have you been listening to too much David Bowie.
The Van Allen Radiation Belts would have ‘fried’ any astronauts passing through it. Had they survived that, gamma rays from the sun would have penetrated the thin aluminium-mylar capsule walls and have resonated insude, exponentially increasing, much like a microwave oven. Strangely, none of the astronauts even developed cancer, anorher miracle?
@Raymond Westlake: the answers are easily found on Google. Educate yourself
@James Wallace: so, you believe everything you read on google, even when it defies the laws of physics?
@Raymond Westlake: So who put the mirrors on the moon we use today for measurement?
Oh wait…..
@Raymond Westlake: and where did I say that?
@Raymond Westlake: the link between astronauts and cancer is well known so that’s the most obvious lie you posted. The rest we’ll put down to misunderstanding at best https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-rocketed-through-van-allen-belts/
@Raymond Westlake: We actually do not believe what we read on Google. However it seems that you do believe all the nonsense and conspiracy that there is no evidence for.
A funny thing happened on the way to the moon
Wonder what was more important for Buzz that he couldn’t attend?
@Stephen Foster: he had to attend to his Bees
@Jonathan Nolan: no! He lost his way to the film studio where it was all made.
@Dave Barrett: https://youtu.be/lw9azZmLxtw insert your face here
Jesus Mick, where the hell have you been?
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