(17 Jul 2019) Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins joined two other Apollo-era astronauts, plus the program's flight director, for a look back at the historic moon mission, which began with liftoff exactly 50 years ago on Tuesday.
Collins remained in lunar orbit, tending to Columbia, the mother ship, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the Eagle on July 20, 1969, and spent 2 ½ hours walking the gray, dusty lunar surface.
"What happened if Neil and Buzz were marooned on the surface of the moon is nothing that we ever discussed," said Collins.
"We didn't have to discuss it, we weren't that stupid. We knew darn well if they couldn't get off from the moon, they were dead men," he told a panel discussion on Tuesday.
Charlie Duke was the capsule communicator in Mission Control for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
"I knew it then it was a really big deal," Duke said.
"That's how I faced it, it's a really big deal. But not me. The program was a really big deal."
Apollo Program Flight Director Gerry Griffin recalled that he was just 33 years old when the mission began.
"I knew it was unique, and I knew it was important, but the fact that 50 years from now, we would have this kind of reaction. I should have thought about it, but I didn't have time," he said.
Griffin said he thought the most dangerous part of the flight was the liftoff of the Saturn V rocket that was carrying Collins, and the two astronauts who landed on the moon days later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Three years after Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin returned to earth after their historic trip to the moon, Duke also walked on the moon as an astronaut on the Apollo 16 mission.
He is one of only four of the 12 moonwalkers from 1969 through 1972 still alive.
The others are Aldrin, Apollo 15's David Scott and Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt.
Members on Tuesday's panel said they're looking forward to the day when an astronaut lands on Mars.
"Mars to me is a very complicated mission," Duke said.
"Once you go to Mars, you're on your own, and you got to have confidence in systems, repair systems, 3D printing systems, whatever to keep that spacecraft working."
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