Category: Space

Alone and at peace?

Michael Collins, the ‘forgotten third astronaut’ of the 1969 moon landing, died last week aged 90. I can remember as a 13 year-old boy being allowed to stay up late and watch this historic event on black and white TV. My diary records the mission nightly, with more or less the same comment each day for a week, conveying a little of the suspense of the incredible venture: ‘Apollo 11 still all right‘. After the success of its return, I was then inspired to go out and use my pocket money to buy an Airfix model of Apollo 11 and to persuade my parents to let me have a telescope for my next birthday.

It was, of course, Neil Armstrong who captured the imagination with his ‘one small step’ and, to a lesser extent, Buzz Aldrin, who also caught everyone’s attention back in 1969. Typically then and subsequently, Michael Collins avoided publicity but his role in the Apollo 11 Moon Mission was vital. He was left alone for 21 hours whilst Aldrin and Armstrong were in the lunar module or on the Moon and every time his orbit took him to the dark side of the Moon, he lost contact with mission control at Houston. ‘Not since Adam has any human being known such solitude’ is the reference in the mission log. Collins had the vital task of maintaining a precise orbit so as to ensure the safe return of his fellow astronauts. In addition to being for a while ‘the loneliest man in the universe’, he it was who looked down on the Earth and commented on its beauty and its fragility – a clarion call to environmentalists today.

In his 1974 biography, ‘Carrying the Fire’, Michael Collins wrote: “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.” In a world where there is so much striving to be ‘the best’, or to be ‘one better’ this is such a telling comment from a man of great integrity and humility. Can we say this, too, of the role we have in life – and be at peace with ourselves and God?

(A slightly expanded version of my weekly ‘thought for the week’ sent to TISCA Heads and Chaplains.)

Dreams are made of this

A small black and white TV

This is a week of dreams – dreams that came to pass in my lifetime. I was 12 years of age and just home from boarding school. It was one of those rare school holidays when my parents were home from Africa and we were staying in our small tenement flat in Paisley. We were not wealthy – don’t believe all you might read in the Press about those who go to independent schools, even today. Our tenement home had two small bedrooms, a kitchen / lounge area and a small wash area – no toilet (we shared the one on the stairs with other families) and no bath (these were available in the town centre at the public baths – not to be confused with a leisure pool today). But we did have a small black and white TV, courtesy of Radio Rentals, and here my dreams unfolded.

As a young boy, I had flown to and from Ghana twice a year between home and school in Scotland. These were the days of the BOAC ‘young fliers’ – later Ghana Airways and a VC10 – where ‘unaccompanied minors’ were treated to visits to the cockpit where they were allowed to sit in the pilot’s seat and watch the dials and see the clouds rushing by. I wanted to be a pilot! Aged 12, however, I was about to be enthralled by something even more exciting than being an airline pilot: an astronaut!

Air travel – and space

At my small boys’ boarding school near Ayr, we didn’t see much TV although ‘Dr Who’ was a regular Saturday feature. Space travel featured in my favourite comic, ‘The Eagle’, and in our ‘free time’ on Wednesdays and Saturdays we regularly made model ‘Airfix’ models of aircraft. Space travel and a moon landing was something else and even at school we were aware of what was about to happen – and my excitement was increased by knowing my parents were back from tropical Africa (where we had no TV and only intermittent wireless connection) and that we would be renting a TV for the holidays.

Diary extracts from July 1969

My 1969 diary picks up the narrative:

Monday, 14th July: End of term. Most people went home at 6.30 pm. End of term service was at 5.00 am (sic). I stayed the night. 19 boys stayed – had a feed (aka ‘midnight feast’)

Tuesday, 15th July: Got the train to Paisley at 8.10 pm (sic). Played golf. 18 holes. Mum – 105. Dad – 86. I got 124. Watched TV. (Golf was our main pastime on our small mining ‘camp’ in Ghana. In Paisley we played on the Municipal Course next to Barshaw Park where the notices said, in typical Scottish fashion, ‘no golf in the park’).

Wednesday, 16th July: Played golf. Mum – 109. Dad – 79. I got 60 and 62. Watched TV. APOLLO 11 BLAST OFF. I saw it on TV.

Thursday, 17th July: Went up Town. Played football and cricket with Cameron. Apollo 11 all right.

Friday, 18th July: Went to see the dentists. Went to Glasgow – Rowans – new suit. Saw a film at the ABC 1 called ‘The Italian Job’. Watch TV Apollo 11 all right.

Saturday, 19th July: Played football with Cameron. Watched TV. The Apollo 11 still all right. Got my comic and pocket money. (The ‘still all right’ catches the mood of the time – we were on tenterhooks that this amazing mission might fail.)

Sunday, 20th July: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon! It landed at approx 9.13 pm. Played golf…

Monday, 21st July: Went to the doctors. Went to see ‘Ring of bright water’ at La Scala. Watched TV. Apollo 11 – 1st Men on the Moon! 

Tuesday, 22nd July: Played with Cameron. Watched TV. Cleared up the settee. Apollo 11 – Luna Bug linked up with the Service Module. Went up Town with Dad. 

(No reference to Apollo on the 23rd July but I did see another film, ‘Where Eagles Dare’ – aware that another ‘Eagle’ had dared – and succeeded.)

Thursday, 24th July: Stayed in most of the time – did my model glider. Apollo 11 splashed down safely in the Pacific. Dad’s last day. (He returned to Ghana the next day.)

Survey – faith or fiction?

This week the Daily Express carried out a survey of its readers – ‘Was the 1969 moon landing real or a hoax?’ Over 32% of respondents (2,713) said it was a hoax with some 6.5% undecided. Amazing! That means the other four landings were also fake and that’s an enormous secret for hundreds, if not thousands, involved in the space programme to keep. I don’t need such bizarre surveys: I witnessed the first Moon landing as a youngster and I know it was real, nerve-tingling and inspiring: ‘Apollo 11 was still all right‘.