The Best Speech Never Given

[statsman 5489]

https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/images/exhibit/rn100-6-1-2.pdf
 
It’s beautiful, and uses soaring imagery. Thank God it wasn’t needed. 
 
Catch the phrase at the end- “widows to be”. It sounds like they believed the most likely failure was the Lunar module completing the mission, since it assumes Collins makes it back in the Command module. Also- catch the detail that they intended to turn off comms. 

[Ghost of LL 15570]

Can you imagine what Collins' trip back to Earth would've been like?  From a purely technical standpoint, it would've been difficult because the lunar module was designed to be flown by three men.  But from a more human standpoint, I can't imagine the mental strain of the grief of just losing your shipmates coupled with the strain of not knowing what kind of reception you could expect when you got back on Earth.

And what kind of reception would he get?  He'd be the corporeal reminder of the mission failure for the rest of his life.  NASA probably wouldn't have sent him back to the Moon; he'd probably be out of the space program.  So what, you get a job at Eastern Airlines?  Yeah--I'm sure every captain would be thrilled to fly to Miami with Michael Collins.

[Samson's Wig 3195]

I'm glad they faked the entire thing so they didn't have to give this speech.

[atomheartbevo 89922]

18 hours ago, statsman said:

It’s beautiful, and uses soaring imagery. Thank God it wasn’t needed. 

It was touch and go though.

36 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Can you imagine what Collins' trip back to Earth would've been like? 

Collins wasn't going to come home alone