{"id":25180,"date":"2026-05-01T22:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T02:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=25180"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:42:27","slug":"flights-of-fancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/flights-of-fancy\/","title":{"rendered":"Flights of Fancy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: Once Around the Moon<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was one of my life\u2019s greatest disappointments when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin decided they couldn\u2019t sleep and instead walked on the moon five hours earlier than planned. That meant humans first walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, rather than on my birthday.<\/p>\n

Over the years I have tried minimizing this loss by reminding myself it was July 21 in Singapore. Of course that didn\u2019t help. According to an old silver spoon I have commemorating my mother\u2019s hard work in ejecting me into this world, the time of my naissance was 17:05. Thus, it wouldn\u2019t have mattered. I would still technically have been nine years old if Buzz and Neil had kept to their original schedule and moonwalked at 02:00 on July 21, 1969. Of course, my namesake Michael (Collins) was zipping around the moon in orbit while all that was going on. In a perfect ten-year-old\u2019s world, Michael would have first stepped on the moon at 17:05 EDT and Buzz would have buzzed around waiting for Michael and Neil\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Having spent my youth in the heat of the space race, the world\u2019s response to the Artemis Mission has come as a bit of a surprise. Once Neil and Buzz walked on the moon and soundly beat the Soviets, the public\u2019s interest in deep space missions fell away. The US Government decided to focus on more terrestrial challenges, like the war in Vietnam and domestic unrest, and the last Apollo Lunar Mission ended on December 19, 1972. Five weeks later America and Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accord<\/a>, officially ending the war. The last American combat troops left Vietnam in March of 1973. NASA had also cancelled Apollos 18,19 and 20. Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd captured the zeitgeist<\/em> when they sang later that year, \u201cToo many lives they’ve spent across the ocean, Too much money they’ve spent up on the moon\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

As time seemingly rolls back to the 1960s, Americans find themselves once again embroiled in an overseas conflict of their own making and still find pride in leading the world (and communist China) in sending people into space. A modern-day Rip Van Winkle could be forgiven for waking up after 57 years asleep and thinking nothing had changed (except he would find a woman and a black man in the formerly all-white, all-male province of the Command Module). My enthusiasm for space flight is partly atavistic and partly genetic (my Uncle Hugh<\/a> having been in the thick of things at Draper labs<\/a> for most of the 1960s).<\/p>\n

Space Lingo<\/h6>\n

It helps that astronauts use nautical terms to guide their ships. Terms like fore, aft, port and starboard, are part of the vernacular of spaceflight. Spaceships have captains that board through a hatch and sit at the bridge while the craft is being docked or moored. Heck, the word astronaut (with its Greek roots) literally means \u2018star sailor\u2019. Nautical terms work well at times when orientation quickly becomes discombobulated. Port and starboard always mean the same thing (left or right) when you\u2019re facing the bow.<\/p>\n

Crew<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been taken with the personalities of the Artemis II\u2019s crew, too. Mission specialist Christine Koch<\/a> seems like a badass adventurer. Pilot Victor Glover<\/a> is a fan of the incomparable Gil Scott Heron<\/a> and listened to \u2018Whitey on the Moon<\/a>\u2019 every week during training. Jeremy Hansen<\/a> is a Canadian with a sense of humour. (I spent two of my formative years attending school in Canada.) Mission Commander Reid Wiseman<\/a> is a father of two daughters and a widower. Hansen formally requested that a recently discovered lunar crater be named after Wiseman\u2019s late wife Carroll. I would happily offer a berth on Aleta to any of these folks. Together they give every appearance of being a strong, cohesive team comfortable with group hugs. In the post-pandemic world, I think their camaraderie was part of the mission\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

Flying<\/h6>\n

Growing up I dreamt of flying airplanes, not rockets. In my late teens I learned that fighter pilots get rejected if their buttock-to-knee length is too long. In other words, my long femurs would get cut off ejecting from a doomed jet. By way of compensation, my femurs proved advantageous when hill-climbing as a cyclist. Being half blind in my right eye keeps me out of the cockpit. (Although, in truth, I haven\u2019t tested that assumption, so it is just an excuse.)<\/p>\n

Fifteen years ago, I flew in a fixed wing glider for my first and only time. I was sorely tempted to pursue my license after that experience. Paragliding in Spain<\/a> a few years ago similarly inspired me. These days I have accepted that my flying future will see me sitting in the back of an airliner as a passenger, or fiddling with the knobs on my drone\u2019s control panel. Artemis was a gentle reminder of my 10-year-old\u2019s dreams and all the things that might have been.<\/p>\n