Page 25 - The Secret Museum

The moon landings also seem more surreal. The suits are made out of fibreglass

fabric, a material that was first manufactured for household items. Cathy remembers
that her ’parents had fibreglass curtains, the height of fashion in the sixties’. The suits
seem far less robust than I had imagined. They have holes where the breathing
apparatus was screwed on. They look so normal that they seem strange. They’re very
low-tech, very human.

Seeing the suits has made me feel that something greater than NASA and Nixon
must have been at work to get those men up there, keep them safe and bring them
home. I’ve read that there was only a ten per cent chance the astronauts would make

it back alive. Now, when I look at the moon and think of those fragile suits lying in
shavasana, it feels to me as if the moon wanted to meet mankind. Maybe Mars will be
next.