On July 16 of the year 1969, the
greatest adventure mankind has ever embarked on to that point began. While the
climactic moment will not be until a few days later, July 20, the launch of the
Apollo 11 spaceflight fifty years ago as of this Monday was both the end of the
US-Soviet Space Race and the beginning of humanity’s efforts to both reside
longer in and go even further into space. On the golden anniversary of the first
lunar landing mission, Apollo 11 is commemorated by the one astronaut on the
team that did not walk on the moon, but was close by.
This Tuesday, July 16 of 2019
according to BBC, Apollo 11 Command
and Service Module (CSM) pilot Michael Collins visited the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida, formerly known as Cape Canaveral, where their spaceflight on a
Saturn V rocket took place half a century earlier. The now-aged 88 retired
astronaut even marked the moment the launch took place: 9:32 AM, US Eastern
Standard Time. He was the sole member of the astronaut team to make it to the
event which kicked off a commemorative period that will last several days.
Collins gave a speech on Launchpad
39A, where Apollo 11 lifted off decades ago, reminiscing the experience he and
his fellow astronauts had on the whole trip. He spoke to NASA TV of the
sensation of the rocket igniting and attaining escape velocity, and then of the
smoother and quieter part when their spacecraft went through near-Earth space
to reach the moon. "We crew felt the weight of the world on our shoulders,
we knew that everyone would be looking at us, friend or foe," Collins
remarked while also wishing that his teammates were present.
Of the two Apollo 11 astronauts
that did land and walk on the moon the first, Neil Armstrong, died in 2012 at
the age of 82 while the second, 89-year-old Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, could not make
it to the occasion.
Celebration of the first lunar
landing mission was not confined to just Florida. In Washington DC the National
Air and Space Museum displayed for the first time in over a decade, the late
Armstrong’s spacesuit, following a restoration initiative paid for by $500,000
of donations in just five days. US Vice President Mike Pence was present at the
suit unveiling.
The actual landing of Apollo 11’s
Lunar Module on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, and the subsequent operations of
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface, would be commemorated this coming
Friday, July 20.
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