Aug 11 1974
From The Space Library
"No other person who has flown in space has captured the experi-ence so vividly," Henry S. F. Cooper said in a review of Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys by Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins. Although the book was "long and rambling," touching a great many bases in Collins' career from Air Force test pilot through Gemini 10 and Apollo, "it is something new under the sun to find an astronaut who isn't afraid to express his feelings." Collins was best at single impressions, "little snapshots," still sharp and clear five years after the lunar landing. Two days out on the mission, " 'The moon I have known all my life, that two-dimensional, small yellow disk in the sky, has gone somewhere to be replaced by the most awesome sphere I have ever seen. . . . This cool, magnificent sphere hangs there ominously, a formidable presence with- out sound or motion, issuing us no invitation to invade its domain.' "
Collins had cast off the "diffidence astronauts normally wear like spacesuits to protect themselves from prying earthlings. . . . 'I have been places and done things you simply would not believe. I have dangled from a cord a hundred miles up; I have seen the earth eclipsed by the moon, and enjoyed it. I have seen the sun's true light, unfiltered by any planet's atmosphere. I have seen the ultimate black of infinity in a stillness undisturbed by any living thing.. . . I do have this secret, this precious thing that I will always carry with me.'" (NYT Book Review, 11 Aug 74, 1)
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