[Anonymouse]

It would've been tricky to make re-entry alone; that was considered an absolute last resort. Astronauts are trained to be team players more than in almost any other profession. Mike's role in the mission is, understandably, overlooked, but Armstrong and Aldrin would never have made it back without the Command Module because the Lunar Module wasn't a self-contained spacecraft, as it wasn't possible (tech- and weight-wise) to build such a thing then. He must've been lonely in lunar orbit.

Apollo 11 is one of my earliest memories; I was 3 1/2 and I don't think anyone in the family slept for the entire landing mission. I miss those days when it all seemed possible. It still does. It still is.

And (slightly O/T) anyone who doubts Apollo achieved anything other than sticking it to the Soviet Union is invited to read Heinlein's Expanded Universe Part II, the chapter titled 'Spinoff' - a lot of things people take for granted came out of the program: CAT scans, ultrasound, anything with miniaturised long-life power sources, robotics and, of course, computers. The entire 10 years of Apollo cost less than 5 cents per U.S. citizen per day.

Yet Congress bleated about the cost. Whuh?

Sorry, this is a pet gripe of mine; they never should have stopped. We should have a permanent base there by now.