I’ve been reading everything I can find about the astronauts. Not their technical skills — I know those reasonably well by now. I’ve been trying to understand them as people.
Frank Borman is a West Point man, Air Force, serious to the point of severity. He believes in the mission in a way that seems almost religious. He pushed himself through the Apollo 1 fire investigation with a discipline that was almost frightening — methodically, relentlessly finding what went wrong and how to fix it. He’s not warm in interviews. But the people who’ve worked with him describe a man of absolute reliability and total commitment.
Jim Lovell is the opposite temperature. Cheerful, gregarious, the kind of man who makes people comfortable. He’s also extraordinarily experienced — more hours in space than almost anyone else, veteran of Gemini 7 (14 days with Borman), Gemini 12, and now training for Apollo 8. He navigates by instinct as much as calculation and generally comes out right.
Buzz Aldrin is complicated. His father was an aviator and friend of Orville Wright; his mother’s maiden name was “Moon” (no, really); he went to West Point and flew combat missions in Korea and got a doctorate at MIT. He’s driven in a way that comes across as difficult to some and magnetic to others. He’s been overlooked for assignments he thought he deserved, and he’s aware of it, and it shows sometimes.
Mike Collins is the most relaxed of the senior astronauts. He’s written the best prose of any of them — the press conference transcripts don’t do him justice, but his interviews reveal a dry wit and genuine self-reflection. He knows he’s orbiting the Moon while his crewmates walk on it, and he seems to be genuinely okay with that.
Neil Armstrong is the one I know least, somehow, despite writing about him the most. He reveals very little. What I know: excellent instincts, great judgment under pressure, extreme modesty. He will be the most famous person alive in six months. I don’t think it will change him.
These are the people going to the Moon. I’ve been watching them for years. I’m glad I know them, even at this distance.