You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

My guest today was intimately involved with arguably the greatest feat of exploration in the history of humankind.

And yet, you probably don't know his name. Michael Collins was one of

the three astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission to land a man on the moon. As Neil Armstrong and

Buzz Aldrin stepped out of their lunar module onto the surface of the moon, Michael Collins was

piloting the command module orbiting high above them.

He was in charge of getting all of them home.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary mission, which was watched live on TV all around the world.

By the end of that fateful year, Michael Collins, who was just 39,

had quit his job as a NASA astronaut in search of different challenges. He worked in the

U.S. State Department. Later, he was director of the National Air and Space Museum, but of course

nothing he ever went on to do had the impact of that

mission to the moon. The same could be said of NASA's manned spaceflight program. Nothing since

has captured the imagination like that first moon landing. Will it ever be surpassed? Well,

Michael Collins joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you very much, Stephen.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission, which you were a key part of.

It means the spotlight is back on that mission. It's back on you. How do you feel about that?

There were three of us, of course, on that flight. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and I,

three very lucky people. Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin,

1930, Mike Collins, 1930. Three quite different people. Neil Armstrong didn't like the spotlight.

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