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July 28, 2019
Honolulu - Neil Armstrong, (click here) Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins' trip to the moon concluded with a stay in Hawaii.
This week marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, but after those historic first steps NASA still had to get the three astronauts safely back to Earth — and the waters off Hawaii are where the cone-shaped spacecraft splashed down.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday, the anniversary of the astronaut's return to Earth, that the crew hit the atmosphere at 25,000 mph, creating a fireball that was visible to the crew of the waiting recovery aircraft carrier USS Hornet stationed about 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii.
"It was like a shooting star when it come out of the sky," recalled Vance Hege, who was a 20-year-old Marine on the Hornet 13 miles from the splashdown site.After two sonic booms, three huge parachutes slowed the descent to the Pacific Ocean....
