NASA Apollo 11 - Looking Back

Statement from Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins

The following is a series of questions and answers prepared by Michael Collins, command module pilot for Apollo 11.

Collins issued the following statement in lieu of media interviews: These are questions I am most frequently asked, plus a few others I have added. For more information, please consult my book, the 40th anniversary edition of CARRYING THE FIRE, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

All of the following sections in quotation marks are from that reference.

Q. Circling the lonely moon by yourself, the loneliest person in the universe, weren't you lonely?

A. No. "Far from feeling lonely or abandoned, I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have. This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don't mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. 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 knows what on this side."

Q. Did you have the best seat on Apollo 11?

A. No. "The cancellation of 014 also freed Borman-Stafford-Collins for reassignment, and reassigned we were, but not as a unit. Tom Stafford moved up a notch and acquired his own highly experienced crew, John Young and Gene Cernan; they became McDivitt's back-up. Score one for Tom. Borman and Collins got promoted to prime crew of the third manned flight, picking up Bill Anders as our third member. In the process, Collins also got 'promoted' from lunar module pilot to command module pilot, and lost right then and there his first chance to walk on the surface of the moon. The reason I had to move up was that Deke at that time had a firm rule that the command module pilot on all flights involving LM must have flown before in space, the idea being that he didn't want any rookie in the CM by himself. Since Bill and Anders had not flown, I was it. Slowly it sunk in. No LM for me, no EVA, no fancy flying, no need to practice in helicopters anymore."

Q. Were you happy with the seat you had?

A. Yes, absolutely. It was an honor.

Q. Has the space program helped young people become interested in careers in math and science? Don't you tell kids to opt for these choices?

A. Yes and no. We definitely have a national problem in that kids seem to be going for money rather than what they consider 'nerdy' careers. Other countries are outstripping us in the quality and quantity of math and science grads, and this can only hurt in the long run. But a liberal arts education, particularly English, is a good entry point no matter what the later specialization. I usually talk up English.

Q. Turning to your flight, what is your strongest memory of Apollo 11?

A. Looking back at Earth from a great distance. "I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied." Small, shiny, serene, blue and white, FRAGILE.

Q. That was 40 years ago. Would it look the same today?

A. Yes, from the moon, but appearances can be deceiving. It's certainly not serene, but definitely fragile, and growing more so. When we flew to the moon, our population was 3 billion; today it has more than doubled and is headed for 8 billion, the experts say. I do not think this growth is sustainable or healthy. The loss of habitat, the trashing of oceans, the accumulation of waste products - this is no way to treat a planet.

Q. You are starting to sound a little grumpy. Are you grumpy?

A. At age 78, yes, in many ways. Some things about current society irritate me, such as the adulation of celebrities and the inflation of heroism.

Q. But aren't you both?

A. Not me. Neither. Heroes abound, and should be revered as such, but don't count astronauts among them. We work very hard; we did our jobs to near perfection, but that was what we had hired on to do. In no way did we meet the criterion of the Congressional Medal of Honor: 'above and beyond the call of duty.' Celebrities? What nonsense, what an empty concept for a person to be, as my friend the great historian Daniel Boorstin put it, "known for his well-known-ness." How many live-ins, how many trips to rehab, maybe--wow--you could even get arrested and then you would really be noticed. Don't get me started.

Q. So, if I wanted to sum you up, I should say "grumpy?"

A. No, no, lucky! Usually, you find yourself either too young or too old to do what you really want, but consider: Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin 1930, and Mike Collins 1930. We came along at exactly the right time. We survived hazardous careers and we were successful in them. But in my own case at least, it was 10 percent shrewd planning and 90 percent blind luck. Put LUCKY on my tombstone.

Q. Okay, but getting back to the space program. What's next?

A. I hope Mars. It was my favorite planet as a kid and still is. As celestial bodies go, the moon is not a particularly interesting place, but Mars is. It is the closest thing to a sister planet that we have found so far. I worry that at NASA's creeping pace, with the emphasis on returning to the moon, Mars may be receding into the distance. That's about all I have to say.

Q. I understand you have become a recluse.

A. I'm not sure that's the word. I think of the Brown Recluse, the deadliest of spiders, and I have a suntan, so perhaps. Anyway, it's true I've never enjoyed the spotlight, don't know why, maybe it ties in with the celebrity thing.

Q. So, how do you spend your time?

A. Running, biking, swimming, fishing, painting, cooking, reading, worrying about the stock market, searching for a really good bottle of cabernet under ten dollars. Moderately busy.

Q. No TV?

A. A few nature programs, and the Washington Redskins, that's about it.

Q. Do you feel you've gotten enough recognition for your accomplishments?

A. Lordy, yes, Oodles and oodles.

Q. Oodles?? But don't you have any keen insights?

A. Oh yeah, a whole bunch, but I'm saving them for the 50th.

Collins's official NASA astronaut biography is available online at:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins-m.html

Additional information about the 40th anniversary of Apollo can be found at:

http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th

Apollo 11 Souvenirs can be found at the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store....Coming soon 40th Anniversary coin with flown Apollo metal.

NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour

STS-127 Mission Overview and Information Sources

Space shuttle Endeavour stands on Launch Pad 39A after weather prevented Monday's scheduled liftoff. Image credit: NASA TV


The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

STS-127 Additional Resources


› Mission Press Kit (6.9 Mb PDF)


› Mission Summary (429 Kb PDF)


› Meet the STS-127 Crew



Visit NASA-SPACE Online Resource

Apollo Media Events

NASA Announces Apollo Astronauts Media Briefing

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news briefing with astronauts from the Apollo program at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 20, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. The news conference will take place in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Astronauts scheduled to participate are: -

James Lovell, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 -
Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 -
David Scott, Apollo 15 -
Charles Duke, Apollo 16 -
Thomas Stafford, Apollo 10 and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project -
Eugene Cernan, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17

Reporters at participating NASA centers may ask questions. Journalists should confirm with their local center that location's availability.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For a list of Apollo 40th anniversary events and more information about the anniversary, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/events.html

Weather again delays STS-127 Launch

Endeavour Launch Rescheduled for Wednesday

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:41:26 AM UTC+0100

Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 15 at 6:03 p.m. EDT.Monday's attempt was canceled due to poor weather conditions within the launch area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Anvil clouds and storm cells containing lightning flared up toward the end of the countdown, violating stringent launch safety rules."Technically, we've been really clean the last two days with our vehicle," Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses said of Endeavour's launch attempts on Sunday and Monday. "It's just been the weather scenario that got us."The outlook is better on Wednesday, with only a 40 percent chance of weather conditions prohibiting liftoff.

See the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store for STS-127 Souvenirs

Shuttle Endeavour Under Repair

NASA Holds Test to Verify Endeavour Tank Repairs

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA will conduct a tanking test at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, July 1, to ensure repairs to space shuttle Endeavour's external fuel tank were successful.

The test will be shown live on NASA Television beginning at 7 a.m. EDT. It will be followed by a news conference at approximately 1 p.m. Briefing participants will be shuttle program Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses and STS-127 Launch Director Pete Nickolenko.

During the test, the external tank will be filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, just as it is before launch. A hydrogen gas leak at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, postponed Endeavour's launch attempts June 13 and 17. The GUCP is attached to the venting system used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.

Engineers determined the most likely cause of the leak is a slight misalignment in the External Tank Carrier Assembly. The assembly was fastened to the tank during manufacturing. The misalignment likely is putting uneven pressure on a Teflon seal, causing a small leak when extremely low temperatures occur during fueling.

Technicians replaced the old seal with a two-piece seal and added small washers to counter any movement of the external tank carrier assembly as the tank is fueled.

Endeavour's launch on the STS-127 mission is targeted for 7:39 p.m. on Saturday, July 11. The 16-day mission to the International Space Station will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

For STS-127 mission crew photo and muission patch visit: Spaceboosters

Nine New Astronauts for NASA

NASA Selects Nine New Astronauts for Future Space Exploration

HOUSTON -- After reviewing more than 3,500 applications, NASA has selected nine people for the 2009 astronaut candidate class. They will begin training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this August. "This is a very talented and diverse group we've selected," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "They will join our current astronauts and play very important roles for NASA in the future. In addition to flying in space, astronauts participate in every aspect of human spaceflight, sharing their expertise with engineers and managers across the country. We look forward to working with them as we transcend from the shuttle to our future exploration of space, and continue the important engineering and scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station." The new astronaut candidates are: Serena M. Aunon, 33, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch flight surgeon for NASA's Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs; born in Indianapolis. Aunon holds degrees from George Washington University, University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston and the University of Texas Medical Branch. Jeanette J. Epps, 38, of Fairfax, Va.; technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Epps holds degrees from LeMoyne College in Syracuse and the University of Maryland. Jack D. Fischer, major, U.S. Air Force, 35, of Reston, Va.; test pilot; U.S. Air Force Strategic Policy intern, Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon. Born in Boulder, Colo., Fischer is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Co., and MIT. Michael S. Hopkins, lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force, 40, of Alexandria, Va.; special assistant to the Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon. Born in Lebanon, Mo., Hopkins holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Stanford University. Kjell N. Lindgren, 36, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch flight surgeon for NASA's Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Lindgren has degrees from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas Medical Branch. Kathleen (Kate) Rubins, 30, of Cambridge, Mass.; principal investigator and fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. Born in Farmington, Conn., Rubins conducts research trips to the Congo and has degrees from the University of California-San Diego and Stanford University. Scott D. Tingle, commander, U.S. Navy, 43, of Hollywood, Md.; test pilot and assistant program manager-Systems Engineering at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Born in Attleboro, Mass., Tingle holds degrees from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) and Purdue University. Mark T. Vande Hei, lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, 42, of El Lago, Texas; flight controller for the International Space Station at the Johnson Space Center as part of the U.S. Army NASA Detachment. Born in Falls Church, Va., Vande Hei is a graduate of Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and Stanford University. Gregory R. (Reid) Wiseman, lieutenant commander, U.S. Navy, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va.; test pilot; department head, Strike Fighter Squadron 103, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Oceana, Va. Born in Baltimore, Wiseman is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University.

For more on each astronaut candidates, their photos and details on the astronaut selection process, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ascans2009

For NASA Astronaut Souvenirs, photos and patches visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store.

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Apollo 11 Anniversary Events

NASA Announces Apollo Anniversary Events, News Conference

WASHINGTON -- NASA has announced a schedule of events to commemorate the achievements of the Apollo program and the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Among the activities is a news conEventsference with astronauts from several Apollo missions scheduled for 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. EDT, July 20, in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA Headquarters is located at 300 E St., S.W.

A list of events to celebrate the Apollo legacy is located at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/events.html

NASA Von Braun Spaceboosters

NASA Announces Request For Information On Von Braun Collection

WASHINGTON -- On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing, NASA is seeking ideas from the public, academia, and industry about how to analyze and catalog notes from spaceflight pioneer Wernher von Braun into an electronic, searchable database or other system. Von Braun was the first director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and a key figure in the development of the Saturn V rocket and NASA's Apollo program. NASA has a full collection of "Weekly Notes" von Braun wrote during the 1960s and 1970s. These notes were used to track programmatic and institutional issues at Marshall, and are considered by many historians to be a valuable source of data. NASA has issued a request for information and is looking for concepts that will provide an innovative resource for agency engineers and scientists, as well as researchers in academia and industry.

For additional information and to view the request for information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/home

For more a complete biography of von Braun, visit:
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html

NASA is planning several activities and events for the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing on July 20. The events will celebrate the Apollo Program, its accomplishments, and the benefits to our lives today.

For more information about NASA's Apollo 40th Anniversary activities, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th

NASA Apollo 11 Patches and Anniversary Coins Visit SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store

Space Themed Rosie's Walk

40th Anniversary of the Apollo Moonlandings

A space theme for this years Rosie's Charity Walk & Festival please visit:

http://www.rosieshelpinghands.org/walk.htm

http://www.rosieshelpinghands.org/walk2009.htm

Apollo Moon Rock Lab Opportunity

NASA Gives Media, Public Look Inside Apollo Moon Rock Vault

HOUSTON -- NASA will offer reporters an unprecedented chance to conduct interviews with scientists inside the lab that stores moon rocks Apollo astronauts collected during their six missions. The July 2 interview opportunities from the Apollo Lunar Sample Processing Lab and Storage Vaults at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will take place nearly 40 years after humans first walked on the moon. Using the NASA Television's Live Interview Media Outlet satellite channel, news organizations will have a chance to talk with scientists who study the lunar samples. The interviews will originate from inside the lunar sample vault, amid the trays of moon rocks and soil samples. Among the samples are those Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin brought back to Earth in July 1969. Live interview opportunities will be available from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. CDT with lunar sample scientists Gary Lofgren and Andrea Mosie. Lofgren is the lunar curator at Johnson and has been with the lab since the Apollo era. Mosie has been a scientist in the current lab since it opened in 1979. To participate in the interviews, journalists should contact Victor Scott at 281-483-4942 or victor.j.scott@nasa.gov no later than noon, July 1. The public also will have an opportunity to take a virtual tour of the lunar sample lab and ask the scientists questions via Ustream and Twitter from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The public can submit questions to Johnson's Twitter account, @NASA_Johnson, beginning today and via Ustream live during the event. The tour and the question-and-answer session also will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

To view the live broadcast on Ustream and submit questions, visit:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-live Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo spaceflight missions brought back 842 pounds and 22,000 separate samples of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface. The majority of the samples are stored at the Apollo Lunar Sample Processing Lab and Storage Vaults at Johnson, with a small subset held at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The samples continue to be studied by scientists around the world. The work has provided invaluable knowledge as NASA prepares to return to the moon. The NASA Live Interview Media Outlet satellite channel will be used for the event. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 6, transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west, downlink frequency 3785.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band 5150 Mhz L.O., vertical polarity, FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.00 Mhz, symbol rate is 4.3404 Mbaud, transmission DVB, minimum Eb/N0 is 6.0 dB. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the Apollo lunar samples and lab, visit:
http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/index.cfm

NASA is planning a number of activities and events in 2009 as the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing on July 20 approaches. The events will celebrate the Apollo Program, its accomplishments, and the benefits to our lives today. For more information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th