STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And let's take a moment now to remember Michael Collins, the third astronaut on one of the most famous space missions in history.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero, lift off. We have a liftoff.
WALTER CRONKITE: What a moment - man on the way to the moon.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In July 1969, Collins joined Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission.
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NEIL ARMSTRONG: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
INSKEEP: Collins himself never actually set foot on the moon. Think of him as the guy who was driving the getaway car. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took a lunar lander down to the surface, stepped down the ladder and onto the moon. Collins was orbiting above, piloting the command module.
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MICHAEL COLLINS: Everything looks OK up here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Roger out.
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COLLINS: The thing I remember most is the view of planet Earth from a great distance - tiny, very shiny, blue and white, bright, beautiful, serene and fragile.
MARTIN: This is Collins from an interview with NPR in 2016.
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COLLINS: It was a chapter in my life, the shiniest, best chapter in my life, but not the only one.
INSKEEP: Michael Collins died Wednesday at 90.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUSTIN HURWITZ'S "THE ARMSTRONGS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.