Collins relives Apollo 11 as party of one

Astronaut’s Fla. return part of lunar bonanza

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins returned on Tuesday to the exact spot where he flew to the moon 50 years ago with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Collins had the spotlight to himself this time. Armstrong has been gone for seven years, and Aldrin canceled.

Collins said he wished his two moonwalking colleagues could have shared the moment at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the departure point for humanity’s first moon landing.

At NASA’S invitation, Collins marked the precise moment — 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969 — that the Saturn V rocket blasted off. He was seated at the base of the pad alongside Kennedy’s director, Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander.

A reunion Tuesday at the Kennedy firing room by past and present launch controllers — and Collins’ return to the pad, now leased to Spacex — kicked off a week of celebrations marking each day of Apollo 11’s eight-day voyage.

In Huntsville, Alabama, where the Saturn V was developed, some 4,900 model rockets lifted off simultaneously, commemorating the moment the Apollo 11 crew blasted off for the moon. More than 1,000 youngsters attending Space Camp counted down and cheered as the red-whiteand-blue rockets created a gray cloud, at least for a few moments, in the sky.

At the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, the spacesuit that Armstrong wore went back on display in mint condition. On hand for the unveiling were Vice President Mike Pence, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Armstrong’s older son, Rick. Armstrong died in 2012.

Back at Kennedy, NASA televised original launch video of Apollo 11, timed down to the second. Then Cabana turned his conversation with Collins to NASA’S next moonshot program, Artemis, named after the twin sister of Greek mythology’s Apollo.

It seeks to put the first woman and next man on the lunar surface, the moon’s south pole, by 2024. President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of 1969 took eight years to achieve.

Collins said he likes the name Artemis and likes the concept behind Artemis even more.