By SARAH KAPLAN | The Washington Post | Published: April 28, 2021 On July 20, 1969, eight years after President John F. Kennedy pledged to land a man on the lunar surface and return him safely to Earth, astronaut Michael Collins sat alone in the command module Columbia. He was floating 60 miles above what he later called the "withered, sun-seared peach pit" of the moon. A lander carrying his fellow Apollo 11 crewmen, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, sped away from the main craft, en route to fulfilling Kennedy's goal. "You cats take it easy," Collins radioed to his crew mates. While Armstrong and Aldrin took their giant leap for mankind, in Armstrong's memorable phrase, Collins circled the moon alone, keeping the command module going and running through the 117-page list of contingencies he'd prepared in the event anything went awry.