The astronaut who took this picture is the only human to exist that is not in the frame

There are photographs that are simply beautiful and breathtaking, and some that capture moments that make us shed a tear.

One of these photographs is that of the lunar module Eagle, captured when returning to the control module from the Moon's surface on July 21, 1969. In the background are the Moon and the Earth.

According to the mass conservation law of classical physics, matter can not be created or destroyed in isolated physical systems, but it can change from one form to another. According to this law, the matter that composes every human being, whether dead, alive or to be born, is within the framework of this photograph.

Even if you were not born at the time, you are on this picture because the matter that finally became you was already on Earth. Everyone is. With the exception of a man, astronaut Michael Collins, the man behind the camera.

Collins is the third member of the largely forgotten Apollo 11 crew who did not set foot on the moon.

While the world was hiring astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for hoisting the American flag, Collins was alone, alone, circling the Moon in the control module, fearing that if something went wrong, he would have to leave his astronaut comrades behind him. and return to Earth by itself, as a "marked man".

Collins did not hide his fears, says the Guardian. At the time, he wrote: "My secret terror for six months left them on the moon and came back to Earth."

The memory continues: "If they do not rise to the surface or crash again, I will not commit suicide. I'll be home right away, but I'll be a man marked for life and I know it.

And it was not just him. All were aware that the chances were 50-50 to return safely to Earth. Even President Nixon had prepared a speech about the eventuality of a failure of the Eagle.

While Armstrong and Aldrin went to the lunar surface in the Eagle, Collins waited in the refueller Columbia almost 24 hours for their return. As they came down, Collins worried, "Keep talking to me guys."

Cut off from contact with his home planet as his job passed behind the moon, Collins recounts his thoughts during this experience: "I am alone now, truly alone and absolutely isolated from all known life. If a count was made, the score would be three billion plus two on the other side of the moon, and one more God knows what on that side. "

When asked what he was thinking about lunar orbit while Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were descending on the moon, Collins said, "I kept reminding myself that every component of this spacecraft was provided by the guy who had submitted the cheapest offer. "

Despite their apparent calm, all those involved in the program feared that the mission would end in disaster. And this fear was a constant companion of the three astronauts on their 240,000-mile journey.

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Fortunately, everything has ended triumphantly. And although for most people, the name of Michael Collins does not ring like a bell, he never felt detached from the Apollo 11 mission. In one of his earlier statements, Collins said, "This company has been structured for three men and I consider that my third is as necessary as one of the other two. "

"Put LUCKY on my tombstone," Collins told a NASA interviewer in 2009.

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