The Loneliest man

It was 40 years ago, from today that a man first took a step on the Moon. His name was Neil Armstrong. He was shortly followed by the first man to pee on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. But there was a third man, Michael Collins, the Command Module pilot that we often forget.

I consider the Apollo Space program to be Mankind’s greatest Achievement. At one time over half a million people were working towards a single goal, - of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth- as JFK once poetically said. Never before and never again in the history of the world, has so much mental and creative energy been channelized for such a good cause. I celebrate this day, not only for the three men who were up there, but also for these lakhs of people who worked towards this goal.

No doubt, this day will be remembered in all eternity for this one man:


Not surprisingly, very few photographs of him on the moon exist, as he was the main photographer, and almost all the photographs that we have from the Apollo 11 trip on the moon are of Buzz Aldrin taken by him. This is sort of like how most of the photographs I have, are of different people taken by me. But I digress.

The person I most identify with was actually Michael Collins.
One of the most accomplished Fighter pilot, he was the Command Module pilot. The Command Module(named Columbia) was the Mothership, and orbited the Moon while the lunar Module went to the moon, and part of it came back. The two moonwakers would then re-join the Command Module, and the Ascent stage of the Lunar Module would then be jettisoned. The three astronauts would then reenter the earth’s atmosphere within the Command Module, after it separated from the Service module.

Atleast that’s how it was supposed to work in theory. No one was 100% certain, since the whole system was never completely tested. The Lunar Module had never landed on the moon before Apollo 11, and even the engineers were not sure if the Ascent stage of the lunar module would successfully blast off the surface of the moon at the correct velocity, to mate with the command Module.

As two Astronauts left in the Lunar Module, Collins was in the Columbia, as it went around the moon. The important thing to remember is that when you are orbiting the moon, there will be times when the moon will be in-between you and the earth. In such a position, you are out radio contact. You are truly alone. And you don’t know if your two fellow astronauts will make it back.

I can only imagine what must be going through his head, as he patiently waited in Columbia, hearing nothing from the earth, or from his teammates, as they landed on the Moon. I have always known that in many ways, Coins has the hardest job. He could have faced returning alone to the earth if the two explorers in the lunar module did not make it back.

But thankfully, it all worked out well, and Collins could take this wonderful picture, showing the earth, the moon, as well as the Eagle.

I do not think that any other picture captures the beauty of the Space programme as well as this one.