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Astronaut returns to launch pad where Moon landing mission began

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Washington: One of the three Apollo 11 astronauts whose mission to the Moon began 50 years ago returned on Tuesday to Cape Canaveral, Florida to mark the anniversary of the launch.


Michael Collins, 88, was at launch pad 39A at the Nasa facility to mark the precise moment at 9:32 am on July 16, 1969 when he and fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong blasted off aboard a Saturn V rocket destined for the Moon.


Collins, who flew the spaceship that orbited the Moon while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on its surface, said it was “a wonderful feeling to be back,” according to Nasa.


Collins, 88, said he wished Aldrin, 89, who was also invited to the launchpad but didn’t take part in the event, and Armstrong, who died in 2012, could have shared the moment.


“There was a difference this time. I want to turn and ask Neil a question and maybe tell Buzz Aldrin something, and of course, I’m here by myself,” he said. Collins went on to visit the launch control centre to meet with Apollo-era launch controllers and Nasa technicians working on the Artemis programme to return to the Moon and ultimately Mars.


In a separate event in Washington, Armstrong’s spacesuit was displayed at the National Air and Space Museum for the first time in 13 years. The suit was revealed on Tuesday after undergoing a restoration.


Events are scheduled to take place all week in Washington and elsewhere in the country leading up to Saturday, the anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969.


Later yesterday in Washington, a full-sized image of a Saturn V rocket was to be projected onto the Washington Monument.


The image of the 110-metre-tall rocket is scheduled to debut on one side of the 169-metre-high obelisk in the centre of the National Mall. It is to remain illuminated for two hours beginning at 9:30 pm (0130 GMT Wednesday). The image will be projected at the same time on Wednesday and Thursday. The museum is hoping the event “inspires generations too young to have experienced Apollo first-hand to define their own moonshot,” said Ellen Stofan, a museum official, in a news release.


The museum said the projected image will be combined on Friday and Saturday with a 17-minute show entitled “Apollo 50: Go for the Moon.” The show includes archival recordings that will be projected on screens mounted next to the monument to recreate the launch of Apollo11 and tell the story of the moon landing. — dpa


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