Word: earthness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...several performances in front of their color television camera?something that apparently can bring out the ham in any man. At one point, Collins said: "O.K., world. Hang onto your hat. I'm going to turn you upside down." As Collins rotated his camera, keeping it pointed toward the earth, the blue and white planet took an erratic 180� turn on earth-based TV screens. "I'm making myself seasick," Collins called to Houston. "I'm going to put you right side up." The earth promptly performed another lazy turn on the TV screens...
Coming around the eastern limb of the moon on their first revolution, the astronauts began sending another TV show to earth. This time they focused the camera on the desolate landscape below. After a long period of silence, a Houston capsule communicator pleaded: "Would you care to comment on some of those craters as we go by?" At last the astronauts came to life...
...Aldrin stepped down from the ungainly looking Eagle?and into history. It was a moment that would surely survive long after the criticism that has accompanied every step of the space program is forgotten?understandable as that criticism may be in view of the pressing problems back on earth. It was, too, a moment that symbolized man's wondrous capacity for questing, then conquering, then questing yet again for something just beyond his reach. But the black vastness that served as a backdrop for the two astronauts' walk on the moon also was a reminder of something else. Stargazer...
...acceleration into flight. The head goes back, hands are raised to block out the sun, tears of relief and perhaps pride fill the eye. The sense of brute power boring an escape hole through the atmosphere is heightened by a sudden realization that one is being left behind. The earth itself seems to be dropping away as fast as the wingless rocket is accomplishing the completely unnatural act of heaving itself upward and bursting through...
EVEN if their mission is a complete triumph, the Apollo 11 astronauts will face a reception far different from those accorded to previous space heroes on their return to earth. There will be no casual camaraderie with the frogmen after splashdown, no lengthy welcoming rites aboard the recovery carrier, no embraces with their wives in Houston. The moon voyagers will be treated-literally-as if they had the plague...