Google's doodle is, as always, a testament to legendary human fortitude, an animated space journey guided by a not-so-lost Major Tom floating through time in the most peculiar way.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 spaceflight that marked Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin as the first humans to have landed on the moon, the Google Doodle for today is an engaging video animation that encapsulates the entire experience with all its fear, dread, pride, and glory in a brilliant manner.
Michael Collins, who was the command module pilot in the Apollo 11 mission, was the narrator and co-pilot, if you will, for the astounding animated journey to the lunar surface 384,400 km away from Earth. In 1969, Collins had flown the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon's surface, where they spent nearly 21 hours 31 minutes at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit.
Collins, therefore, was perfect for narrating an experience all too different from the usual tales we have already known. For example, while reminiscing the moment when the three of them first saw the moon up close, he said it was a 'magnificent spectacle' but looking at the little ball of dirt, our planet Earth, from outer space, took the cake for him.
"The sun was coming around it, cascading and making a golden halo and filled our entire window," the former astronaut's voice trembled with remembrance, "As impressive as this view was of the alien moon up close, it was nothing compared to the sight of the tiny Earth. The Earth was the main show. The Earth was it."
Collins added dreaded bits of info from the mission, such as when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had lost radio contact with Earth and had almost run out of fuel on their module 'Eagle' which pirouetted before the astronauts, but they managed to finally steer the module into the West lunar crater.
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," the viewer can hear the historic words of Neil Armstrong as their module landed on the surface after what Collins described as a "tense descent".
Armstrong's voice continued, miles away from Earth and years away in the past, brought to the viewers by Google his historic words as he stepped on to the lunar surface, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
That was July 1969.
"Behind the Moon, I was by myself. All alone but not lonesome, if you counted there were three billion plus two people on one side, and me on the other. I was very comfortable, I even had hot coffee," joked the aged spaceman who gazed at the blue planet from a tin can 50 years ago.
50 years later, in July 2019, the Apollo 11 mission might have been an event from the past, but its legacy remains in mankind's drive to attain scientific brilliance every waking moment. Google's doodle is, as always, a testament to legendary human fortitude, an animated space journey guided by a not-so-lost Major Tom floating through time in the most peculiar way.
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 "Google takes you on a wistful journey on Apollo 11 mission's 50th anniversary")
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