The Man Behind the Moon

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and American heroes Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taking their small step for man and giant leap for mankind. There was a third man on that mission. Forgotten in the shadow of the ecstasy and adulation, astronaut Michael Collins was orbiting solo around the moon while his shipmates planted a triumphant American flag on its surface. His mission: To bring them home safely. This is the story of "the loneliest man since Adam."

They had been on their journey for three days. These modern Argonauts had travelled further than Jason, Odysseus, or Genghis Khan. They had long since rocketed past the dimension that Magellan once set as a benchmark. A quarter of a million miles into the empty space, they pushed forward into the dark nothingness in a ship in the shape of an oversized washing drum stuffed with what was then state-of-the-art electronics.
Down on earth, the excited frenzy had subsided as their Saturn rocket rose into the sky, "this slim angelic mysterious ship … white as a shrine of the Madonna," as one chronicler enthusiastically described. Mankind again pursued earthly things. With one eye glued to th ...