NASA 50th Anniversary Moment: Michael Collins
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President Kennedy: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth."
Michael Collins: "When President Kennedy said land on the moon by the end of the decade, I thought, gosh, I don't know, that's a very short leash to be on. We've never really -- we've never flown in earth orbit even at that time, only Alan Shepherd's suborbital flight. And the idea to go all the way into orbit, then to test out the equipment and the ideas that were required to fly all the way to the moon, 230 thousand some thousand miles from earth. That was an incredible leap. I just wasn't at all sure we were going to be able to do that by the end of this decade, this decade of the '60s. That seemed very, very tight to me."
Neil Armstrong: "Tranquility base here. The eagle has landed."
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