Wow! Washington is mental!
The the NASM’s Udvar-Hazy Center was quite a bit less crazy, and seemed to be more focused on straight-forward aviation, and not so much on “exhibits” as “artifacts”. There is less of a “Boo-yah! Go, USA!” feel to this facility. It’s more of a check it out, read the plaques, make up your own mind kind of thing. A little more my speed.
The main NASM exhibit space on the Mall in Washington is far more exhibit-ey, and USA-ey. I suppose you’d have to expect that from a museum on the national Mall. Of course, we happened to be there at a particularly chaotic time, when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was being observed. Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins and Alan Bean were all selling and signing books. That added a level of lunacy… then there’s the regular touristy crowd, who may or may not know that Apollo really happened… and maybe even think that airplanes fly because gods make it so…. Belligerent, rude, careless people. Lots of them.
Then, we got to see the astronauts. Wow. It was the annual John Glenn Lecture. This year, the featured speakers were all three of the Apollo XI crew, along with Christopher Kraft. John Glenn, himself, also spoke.
First it was Glenn. His remarks were polite, considered, and inoffensive.
Then, came Kraft, whose remarks, as I recall them, were mostly recollections of the nervousness between liftoff and Lunar landing of Apollo XI.
Next was Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin wasted little time on platitudes, and went right into, “Why haven’t we landed on Mars yet?” I happen to agree with most of Aldrin’s arguments, and I am tired of the political timidity of US leadership.
Mike Collins spoke next, and as I expected, he was more philosophical than Aldrin. Collins strikes me as more of a “neutral” thinker with a healthy sense of humor. His remarks reflected that, and he focused more on the personal impact of having been to the Moon and returning. He closed his remarks with, “I guess you could put ‘Lucky’ on my tombstone, but not too soon.”
Finally Neil Armstrong came up. He focused on what he saw as the three catalysts for the mission to the Moon: Goddard, Governance, and Geophysics.
Here’s a little NY Daily News piece.
The remarks of these three ordinary who served as the face of a team of some 400,000 Americans who achieved something singularly remarkable were, themselves, remarkable in their perspective, thoughtfulness and frankness.
It’s just a shame that our countrymen can’t be persuaded to seriously consider their positions.
