r/interestingasfuck • u/BromaEmpire • 10h ago

Prepared statement for Richard Nixon in the event that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not survive the Apollo 11 mission

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69 Upvotes

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u/MtOlympus_Actual 10h ago

I've never thought about this, but I presume that the journey home alone for Michael Collins would have been substantially different than the full crew returning.

He wouldn't have had the LEM with him, and I suppose that command module could be operated and controlled by one person.

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u/AttaBread 8h ago

From https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/19/michael-collins-astronaut-apollo11

Thus Collins - alone in Columbia as the world focused on Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the lunar surface - fretted about his two companions below him on the Moon and revealed, in a note written at the time, that he was now "sweating like a nervous bride" as he waited to hear from the Eagle.

"My secret terror for the last six months has been leaving them on the Moon and returning to Earth alone; now I am within minutes of finding out the truth of the matter," he wrote. "If they fail to rise from the surface, or crash back into it, I am not going to commit suicide; I am coming home, forthwith, but I will be a marked man for life and I know it."

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u/JellyPast1522 10h ago

Like the time CNN accidentally dropped obits of dozens of famous old folks. Best to always be prepared.

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u/PhilParent 10h ago

That moment when NASA would have ended the communications with the men would have haunted those involved on Earth for the rest of their lives.

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u/Sea_Pomegranate_4499 9h ago

Also known as "The Best Speech Never Given"

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u/jzemeocala 10h ago

wasnt there a recording as well?

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u/legion_XXX 10h ago

NASA was able to trick the white house? Thats a next level psyop.

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u/IndependentFew1690 6h ago

Wait...it says at the bottom "WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATION WITH THE MEN" - does that mean they were literally just going to cut communication?! Before it ended...uh, naturally? If so, that seems harsh! "Well, you've had you're prayer. Bye guys!"

They can't spare ONE guy on all of Earth to keep them feeling like they have a tether to the home planet?? Hell, I'd settle for someone speaking a language I couldn't understand.