Space Is In the Air

Neil Earle with Apollo capsule at the California Science Center.

By Neil Earle

The 1960s was a Time of Heroes, a time when people believed in a sense of mission – a different era it seems.

May 5 is the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepherd’s 15:28 minutes shot into space wherein he communicated with NASA 78 times and immensely advanced the American effort that would reach the moon.

The picture is by my wife Susan at the California Science Museum in 2016 of an Apollo capsule like that which Michael Collins flew in as he trained for the lunar mission on 1969. On July 20, 1969 he commanded the Mother Ship while Armstrong and Aldrin walked below. Collins died just recently.

How thin the margins of those spacecraft walls – the margin between life and instant icy death! At the time we didn’t know how dangerous it all was! Hence the phrase for the men NASA was looking for – the Right Stuff.