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Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

npr.org

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Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#21

Post by raverbashing »

minikites wrote: post #10
unchocked wrote: post #4

Clear skies and tailwinds. Can't get back to the Moon fast enough, while we still have living continuity to Apollo. Can't believe how low the low in our space program has been.

SpaceX is still blowing up rockets like it's 1950s NASA, maybe we should just fully fund the competent folks at 2020s NASA instead.

NASA/JPL have an ample history of blowing up experimental rockets. Same as the Russians. The Germans had it hard with the V2s as well

I'd recommend people to look up into those previous failures (and SpaceX is finding "new ways" to fail)

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#24

Post by raverbashing »

caution wrote: post #2

Statements on Passing of Michael Collins. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/statements-on-passing-of-...

"As pilot of the Apollo 11 command module – some called him ‘the loneliest man in history’ – while his colleagues walked on the Moon for the first time, he helped our nation achieve a defining milestone."

In a way it was a bit disappointing. But it was also a big, huge responsibility. Remember, if something went wrong with the Eagle, he was going to return alone to Earth.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#28

Post by JKCalhoun »

thestoicattack wrote: post #3

I'm glad his memoir, "Carrying the Fire", got mentioned. It's one of the best astronaut memoirs.

I believe it was his book where he describes the moon hanging there as they were closing in on it. This massive, plaster-of-paris sphere almost filling his view.

His description (ignore mine above) made me realize just how remarkable that must have been to see. The Earth diminishing to a ball is one thing, but this atmosphere-less, white desert, Little-Prince-like, moon bearing down on you sounds like something else entirely.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#29

Post by slg »

Collins' role in Apollo 11 is often minimized in the public conciseness, but I find it particularly fascinating from a human perspective. In certain ways it seems even scarier than Armstrong's and Aldrin's jobs. They at least had more direct control over their success in landing on the moon. Collins was largely powerless to help if something went wrong. If that did happen, he would have been faced with the choice of abandoning his crewmates to die on the moon and fly back to Earth himself. Meanwhile no one had ever been as far from other life as he was on that flight. When he was on the far side of the moon he was truly alone in a way that no other person had ever been in human history.

Re: Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died

#30

Post by mbauman »

I've always thought the CSM commanders had the most incredible and challenging role of the three Apollo astronauts. They were undoubtedly the "most alone" humans ever — at least on a physical level. Every other hour they'd transit to the far side of the moon and would be 2200 miles (3600km) away from the nearest two humans and hundreds of thousands of miles/km away from everyone else who's ever lived. Not only that, they lost radio contact. The silence and solitude must have been wild.

For upwards of three days.

From the NYT obit:

“I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life,” [Collins] wrote in recreating his thoughts for his 1974 memoir, “Carrying the Fire.”

“If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God only knows what on this side,” he added. “I like the feeling. Outside my window I can see stars — and that is all. Where I know the moon to be, there is simply a black void.”

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