MoonTalker

Here’s a question likely to cause arguments: what is humankind’s greatest achievement? The Age of Enlightenment? Music? What about the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza? For many it doesn’t get more glorious than the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. This year marks the 50^th anniversary of that remarkable feat of technology and daring. And while the moonwalkers, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, dominate our memories of the moon landing, there’s a third astronaut who deserves his place in history. Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 command module spacecraft in lunar orbit while his two colleagues collected moon rocks. In a rare interview he tells Sarah Abo if it wasn’t for him, one of our greatest successes would have been a monumental failure.

Reporter: Sarah Abo 
Producers: Laura Sparkes, Naomi Shivaraman