John Hirasaki and the Moon Men

Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 splashdown, and of one of my favorite “lost” Apollo stories. If you see anything about the splashdown anniversary today, it'll likely of Neil, Buzz and Mike freshly home from the Moon.

It probably won't be about John Hirasaki, who played a unique role in their story. When Columbia splashed down, there was a set of tasks that had to be performed before it could be safely transported. Obviously, anyone who was exposed to the spacecraft like that would also be exposed to any Moon germs the crew might have picked up, so they, too, would have to go into quarantine.

John Hirasaki was the young engineer, recently engaged, who drew the straw to safe the Apollo 11 capsule and and be confined to quarantine with the first men on the Moon. I had the pleasure of telling his story of the mission's 35th anniversary, and I still love it as an example of how many people it takes to make history happen. You can read it here .