“Carrying the Fire” by Michael Collins – Raising our Limits
The latter wrote an autobiography titled Carrying the Fire, and in it he recounts the entire adventure in all of its glory, starting back with his own days as a fresh pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
Michael Collins Recalls his Defining Adventure
Man has always had an innate drive to explore and expand, and for a while our own planet was large enough to accommodate those ambitions. Much of the world, however, has been settled by now, and as we've progressed we turned our focus to the stars. One of the first and most important steps in our adventure was the moon landing of 1969, an event Michael Collins describes in his biography, Carrying the Fire.
To offer just a little bit of context, the Apollo 11 spacecraft was piloted by three people on its historical mission: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins himself. While the first two became famous around the world, it feels like Collins was somewhat overshadowed, though I believe his account of the events to be no less valuable.
Collins doesn't jump straight into the mission itself, instead beginning with his career in the Air Force and his first experiences as a pilot. Following this, he moves through his life to his days spent as a test pilot, providing some insight into a job relatively little is written about.
Following the introduction to himself and the path which ultimately led him to Apollo 11, he begins to give his account of the mission itself, going into great detail about all of its aspects, from the people working there to the greatest difficulties they had to face.
He traces the mission from start to completion, offering plenty of his own impressions along the way. He expands into other topics as well, giving us a fairly unique perspective on subjects including time, light, the joys of flight, the immense value of our planet, and its relative insignificance in the vast void of space.
A Lighter Approach to a Heavy Topic in Carrying the Fire
The amount of books which have been written on spaceflight, especially on the Apollo 11 mission, is likely higher than anyone can count, and for good reason. It was not only a monumental event for humanity as a whole, but it was also a rather complex one and can be approached from a number of different perspectives.
Some choose to examine it from a cold, hard and scientific perspective, offering as many facts as possible accompanied by profound explanations on how every single piece of machinery worked. In my opinion, while it is necessary to have such materials for reference, for the majority of us whose knowledge of these realms is somewhat superficial, it simply doesn't make for a good read.
The crew of Apollo 11 (from left): Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin.
In his book, Michael Collins takes the other route, preferring to keep it simpler and lighter when it comes to the technical details. He never spins out of control into long-winded and precise explanations, instead giving us just enough to have an overall understanding of whatever he's talking about.
Instead, Collins prefers to focus more on the emotional side of things, the human aspect of it, if you will. His ability to recall the experience is second-to-none, especially when it comes to his internal state during each stage of the project.
There are a number of concise and evocative descriptions which do a fantastic job at relaying what he was going through to the reader, the immense impact it had on him, and why. Even though most of us today are too young to remember the event and its outcome is recorded in history, it is hard not to become emotionally invested in Collins' account of it.
A New Perspective from the Moon
Finding a factual account of the mission in all of its details is far from being difficult these days, but there is something which none of those reports offer: the philosophical implications for the people undertaking this journey in hopes of raising just a little higher the limits of humanity.
Dispersed throughout the book are countless little observations and reflections made by the author, as he tries his best to convey how the new perspective offered to him by the experience impacted his way of thinking. More often than not, these bits of commentary are also of a more lighthearted and humorous nature, with Collins having an enviable ability to find comedy wherever it might be hiding.
NASA Remembers Apollo Astronaut Michael Collins
From time to time, he also touches on subjects which bring out the scientist and philosopher in him just a little bit, such as the flow of time or the nature of light. He offers quite a few interesting ideas, and more often than not, he does give them a fairly solid base to stand on. There is always a certain elegance to them, and they are excellent at pushing the reader to make his or her own reflections.
He never pretends to have all the answers, nor does he push his thoughts onto the reader in any sort of aggressive manner; there isn't a single hint of any snobbish behaviour to be found. As a matter of fact, it seems to me as if Collins might be the most humble out of the Apollo 11 trinity.
Finally, I should also mention the fact we are fed, along the way, an immense amount of insider knowledge about the moon landing program and how things worked behind the scenes. Many of the elements discussed by the author never really made it into the public limelight, but they do shed light on some of the struggles and triumphs of the American space program.
The Final Verdict
Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins is an essential biography for anyone interested in spaceflight and in the Apollo 11 mission. Always light on the technical side, Collins recounts the adventure from start to finish, offering revealing facts and insightful commentary along the way.
If you're looking for a first-person account of the moon landing mission which focuses more on the emotional, psychological and philosophical aspects, then this book is the perfect fit for you.
 | Michael Collins |
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