Mystery of the Viking Mars Arm: What Happened 50 Years Ago?
▼ Summary
– Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut and museum director, was concerned with keeping the opening ceremony on schedule.
– The ceremony included a Thunderbirds flyover, Presentation of Colors, national anthem, invocation, and introductions.
– President Gerald Ford spoke at 11:13 am, calling the museum a “perfect birthday present” from Americans to themselves.
– Ford noted that most of the flying machines displayed, from the Wright brothers’ biplane to space vehicles, were “Made in USA.”
– The ceremony concluded with Ford quoting Thomas Jefferson and John Adams about dreaming of the future and American liberty.
Michael Collins kept stealing glances at his wrist. As the director of the National Air and Space Museum, he had already outpaced the original opening schedule by three days. But none of that would matter if the next 36 minutes didn’t unfold without a hitch.
President Gerald Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller settled into their seats on the red, white, and blue draped outdoor stage in just 35 seconds. The Thunderbirds flyover was mercifully brief. At any ordinary event, that would have been the only moment demanding strict timing.
Collins continued checking the clock. The Presentation of Colors consumed 20 seconds. The Air Force band delivered the national anthem in roughly 85 seconds. Then came the invocation from the Bishop of Washington, followed by Smithsonian Secretary Dillon Ripley welcoming the assembled crowd.
Chief Justice Warren Burger, serving as Smithsonian chancellor, efficiently introduced the president. Ford stepped to the podium at precisely 11:13 a.m.
“This beautiful new museum and its exciting exhibits of the mastery of air and space is a perfect birthday present from the American people to themselves,” Ford declared. “Although it is almost impolite to boast, perhaps we can say with patriotic pride that the flying machines we see here, from the Wright brothers’ 12-horsepower biplane to the latest space vehicle, were mostly ‘Made in USA’.”
Nine and a half minutes later, Ford closed his remarks. “Thomas Jefferson said, ‘I like to dream of the future better than the history of the past.’ So did his friendly rival, John Adams, who wrote of his dream ‘…to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment.'”
(Source: Ars Technica)