A Ringside View of the Moon Shots, Part 10: "For All Mankind"

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew, pictured from left to right, Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, May 1, 1969. (NASA image S69-31739 via NASA on the Commons/Flickr)

By Steve Milner
Contributing Writer


Postscript: The astronauts in later years…

After retiring from NASA in 1971, Neil Armstrong, a former U.S. Navy combat fighter and test pilot, taught engineering classes for several years at the University of Cincinnati. He mostly avoided publicity after Apollo 11 and died at 82, on August 25, 2012, due to complications from cardiac surgery. His ashes were scattered at sea, and a lunar crater was named for him.

Edwin Aldrin, 89, who strongly advocates for our nation to send astronauts to Mars, was a front-row guest at President Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union Address. He legally changed his first name from Edwin to “Buzz” in the 1980s, and the former combat pilot retired from the Air Force as a colonel.  The dissertation he wrote earning a doctorate in astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the subject of orbital spacecraft rendezvous was inspired by his experiences targeting enemy MiGs during the Korean War.

On July 21, 2009, Apollo 11 astronauts, from left, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stand during a recognition ceremony at the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington DC. The committee presented the three Apollo 11 astronauts with a framed copy of House Resolution 607 honoring their achievement, and announced passage of legislation awarding them and John Glenn the Congressional Gold Medal.  (NASA image by Bill Ingalls via NASA on the Commons/Flickr)

Michael Collins, 88, retired from the Air Force as a major general and later was an Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, the director of the National Air and Space Museum, an undersecretary at the Smithsonian Institution and eventually an aerospace company executive.

The Apollo 11 backup crew trained as vigorously as the primary one. Its commander was James Lovell, who flew on Apollo 8, in addition to two Gemini missions. His Apollo 11 backup crewmembers were William Anders (Apollo 8 crewman) and Fred Haise. The trio was launched on the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission April 11, 1970, that experienced an explosion in its service module while en route to the Moon. Fortunately, they were able to loop around the Moon and return safely to Earth, using their attached lunar module for life support and power conservation for their primary spacecraft.

Seen from the Apollo 13 command module "Odyssey" on April 17, 1970, the stricken service module it just separated from recedes into the distance towards their missed objective.  (NASA image AS13-59-8525 via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Two movies recently came out about the landmark lunar-landing mission. They were First Man and Apollo 11.  I didn’t see First Man, a Hollywood docudrama that his sons said was an accurate portrayal, but I did see Apollo 11.  The latter production was a fast-paced, edited documentary of actual events, which gave me the opportunity to see a number of people I had worked with during my aerospace days.

A technician holds the plaque for Apollo 11 to be attached to the decent stage of the lunar module "Eagle."  The plaque was made of stainless steel measuring nine by seven and five-eighths inches, and one-sixteenth inch thick. (NASA image S69-39193 via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Final Thoughts

Even though I was a minor player in our nation’s first manned lunar–landing mission, I’ll always remember that I was involved in it…along with a few hundred thousand other workers across the United States.  It’s something I’ll never forget!  Perhaps the Apollo 11 crew described it best when it left a plaque attached to a leg on its lunar module’s descent stage. The plaque’s wording is as follows:

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH

FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON

JULY 1969 A.D.

WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND

The Apollo 11 crew names and signatures were on this plaque, along with President Nixon’s. The astronauts also left on the Moon an Apollo 1 mission patch honoring deceased astronauts Grissom, White and Chafee, and Soviet medals honoring the late cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin.

Apollo 11 Hasselblad image from film magazine 40/S–extra-vehicular activity (EVA) showing plaque on the landing gear strut of the lunar module “Eagle” descent stage. (NASA image SA11-40-5899 via via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.