Michael Collins looked at his watch.
The Apollo 11 astronaut had already moved up the original schedule for the opening of the National Air and Space Museum by three days, but no one would remember it. If these last 36 minutes didn’t go perfectly.
It took President Gerald Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller 35 seconds to find their seats on the outdoor stage lined with red, white and blue bunting. The Thunderbirds’ flyover was pretty quick. In any other event, it would have been the only weather-dependent concern of the day.
Collins continued checking the time. The Color Presentation lasted 20 seconds.
The national anthem, played by the Air Force Band, lasted about 85 seconds. Then came the invocation given by the Bishop of Washington, and then the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Dillion Ripley, welcomed all who had come to the ceremony.
Warren Burger, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court and chancellor of the Smithsonian, quickly introduced the president. Ford then took the podium at 11:13 am.
President Gerald Ford and Michael Collins, director of the National Air and Space Museum, react as the Viking arm cuts the ribbon and opens the building to the public on July 1, 1976.
Credit: Smithsonian
President Gerald Ford and Michael Collins, director of the National Air and Space Museum, react as the Viking arm cuts the ribbon and opens the building to the public on July 1, 1976.
Credit: Smithsonian
“This beautiful new museum and its exciting exhibits on the mastery of air and space is a perfect birthday gift from the American people to themselves,” he said. “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-horse biplane to the latest space vehicleThey were mostly ‘Made in USA’.”
Nine and a half minutes later, Ford concluded. “Thomas Jefferson said, ‘I like to dream more of the future than of the history of the past.’ So did his friendly rival, John Adams, who wrote of his dream: “…to see rise in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of free men, without a nobleman or a king among them. You say it is impossible. If I agreed with you on this, I would still say, ‘Let us try the experiment.'”
