Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9408120009
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI RICHERT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And when the astronauts splashed down safely back on Earth the world-wide fanfare began. Among the flood of congratulatory letters, awards and invitations the astronauts received was a hand-written letter to Collins from Charles Lindbergh.
In his book, ``Carrying the Fire,'' Collins wrote that the letter was ``the most impressive of all'' that was showered on him when he came home from the moon.
``...I watched every minute of the walk-out, and certainly it was of indescribable interest. But it seems to me you had an experience of in some ways greater profundity - the hours you spent orbiting the moon alone, and with more time for contemplation.
What a fantastic experience it must have been - alone looking down on another celestial body, like a god of space! There is a quality of aloneness that those who have not experienced it cannot know - to be alone and then to return to one's fellow men once more. ...
As for me, in some ways, I felt closer to you in orbit than to your fellow astronauts I watched walking on the surface of the moon.''
This letter, along with Collins' Presidential Medal of Freedom, a transcript of the Apollo XI mission commentary, photographs from space and collections of moon walk and space memorabilia fill two display cases at Virginia Tech's Donaldson Brown Conference Center in Blacksburg.
The exhibit also contains pieces from the collections of Christopher Kraft, director of flight operations for Apollo XI and a Virginia Tech graduate; Evert B. Clark, aviation and space journalist who covered the first lunar landing mission for Newsweek magazine; and Robert R. Gilruth, head of the Space Task Group for project Mercury and director of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.
These personal collections are among many that constitute Virginia Tech's Archive of American Aerospace Exploration in the special-collections department of Newman Library. Only Kraft held a connection to Tech, and special-collections head Stephen Zietz says getting the others to donate their papers is largely a work of being both aggressive and the first to ask.
Much of the material has never been displayed until now, though it is available for perusal in the special-collections department. In fact, so much has been given to Tech that choosing what to exhibit and what to leave on library shelves was not an easy task. Not seen in the exhibit, for example, is the joystick from Collins' fighter plane and several honorary medals, including an Eagle Scout medal from Japan. And, sealed until he finishes a book, are the papers of John Parsons, the father of numerical control (without which, says Zietz, there would be no Boeing jet).
The exhibit was spurred by the 25th anniversary of the first lunar landing. ``The excitement seems no longer to be there,'' says Zietz. ``But we hope the exhibit will bring it back.''
It will remain on display through Aug. 27. The special collections department is open from noon-4:30 p.m. on Monday and 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday during the summer. For more information, call 231-6308.
by CNB