On July 20, 1969, the news of the moon landing by American astronauts; Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins shocked the whole world and the British royalty was no exception, so much so, that this event would have greatly marked Prince Philip.
The Duke of Edinburgh saw the astronauts as heroes but was apparently disappointed when he met them at Buckingham Palace. This was shown in the seventh episode of the third season of ‘The Crown’, “Moondust”.
Prince Phillip meeting with astronauts
After the return to Earth of the first men to set foot on the Moon, they began an international tour of 24 countries in 38 days and one of the stops was London. Queen Elizabeth II invited them on October 14, 1969. Prince Philip reportedly requested a special private audience to ask them for their thoughts on such an achievement.
Upon arrival at the royal residence, the astronauts were received with full honors. When it was time for the private meeting with Philip, he began to interview them, but as the minutes passed, he was in for an unpleasant surprise.
Apparently the astronauts’ responses were not very profound. They appeared human, even one of them had a cold. The Queen’s husband realized that they were normal flesh and blood people who would have just followed procedures outlined by the engineers. This was a great disappointment to Philip.
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