"On This Day" In Engineering History

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are gods in the mythology of American aerospace. These three astronauts were the Olympian long-distance runners who won the longest race in human history: the two nation marathon to the surface of the Moon.

Each crew member had experience in space at the time of Apollo 11's launch on July 16, 1969. But it wasn't always the plan for this veteran crew to be the three who would fly the most famous space mission in history.

This is Your Captain Speaking

Neil Armstrong has been an iconic figure in American culture for over forty years. Even today, he's best known for delivering the famous line, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," as he stepped off the bottom rung of a Lunar Module dubbed Eagle. Before stepping into human history, he served in the U.S. Navy and saw action in the Korean War. Later, he served as a test pilot and logged over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft, including the famous supersonic project plane, the Bell X-1. Armstrong also flew the F-104 Starfighter, which was eventually used by NASA for pre-space flight testing.

A Purdue graduate, Neil Armstrong was the command pilot of Gemini 8, where he and pilot David Scott performed the first docking of two spacecraft in 1966. Armstrong's second and final space flight was the famous Apollo 11 Moon landing, after which he retired. Armstrong then pursued a variety of activities, including NASA accident investigator, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and various roles as spokesman for companies such as Chrysler. On October, 27, 2007, his alma mater, Purdue University, opened the $53.2 million Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering in his honor. He was also awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

The Buzzer

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. (so named because his little sister pronounced "brother" as "buzzer") graduated from West Point third in his class and served as a jet fighter pilot in the Korean War. Aldrin began his work with NASA as part of the Gemini program and served as the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11. His development of underwater training methods for astronauts was so sound and well-designed that it is still used by NASA.

There are some discrepancies among NASA officials about whether Aldrin was supposed to be the first man who stepped onto the Moon's surface. Nevertheless, he is well-known for uttering the second most famous line from the Apollo 11 mission while aboard the Lunar Module: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." A devout Presbyterian, Aldrin received Communion on the surface of the Moon, but kept it a secret because of a lawsuit stemming from a reading of Genesis during Apollo 8.

After retiring from NASA, Buzz Aldrin stayed active in aerospace and developed the Aldrin Cycler, a type of spacecraft trajectory that would allow astronauts to pass near Earth and Mars on a regular basis. He also recently wrote an article for CNN that is a "must read" for anyone who considers travel to Mars to be a worthy endeavor.

Back Pain Means Moon Gain

Major General Michael Collins was the Command Module Pilot (CMP) of the Apollo 11 flight. A former Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot, Collins was scheduled originally to be the CMP on Apollo 8 before suffering a cervical disc herniation and having to undergo back surgery. He was replaced by James Lovell, whose spot aboard Apollo 11 Collins took back upon his recovery. This is noteworthy, as Lovell's next flight in space was as commander of the famous near-disaster on Apollo 13.

Collins is often considered the least known of the three-man crew of Apollo 11. Still, he has a footnote in pop culture history because of the Jethro Tull song, For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me, in which the band discusses what it is like to be left behind - a feeling that Collins said he never felt. He did say, however, that his solo flights around the Moon allowed him to contemplate that, "not since Adam has any human known such solitude."

In post-NASA life, Michael Collins held positions as Director of the National Air and Space Museum and served as undersecretary of the Smithsonian. He is also the author of several books about his experience. Collins was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Part 1 - Motivations to Get to the Moon

Part 2 - Saturn V and Apollo Series

Resources:

http://www.buzzaldrin.com/about/faq/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin#cite_note-BuzzFAQ-5

http://history.nasa.gov/ap16fj/index.htm

http://history.nasa.gov/MHR-5/contents.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_spacecraft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebd5z7V9-pk