Michael Collins, the man who piloted the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon while Neil Alden Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first human landing on the lunar surface.
Of the three astronauts, Collins was the acknowledged jokester.
Buzz Aldrin called him the “easygoing guy who brought levity into things.”
“We were all business. We were all hard work, and we felt the weight of the world upon us,” Michael said in 2019.
The Air Force officer and former test pilot Michael Collins flew on Gemini 10 in 1966, three years after being accepted into the third astronaut group.
He was supposed to be the command module pilot of Apollo 8 and the first human-crewed flight to circle the Moon but was bumped because of a bone spur in his neck.
Surgery corrected the problem, and he turned up on Apollo 11 instead.
Collins was surprised when reporters asked him about being alone as he circled the Moon by himself, especially on the Moon’s far side, out of radio contact with Earth.
“I felt like I was Neil and Buzz’s meal ticket home,” he said. “I was in no way, shape, or form lonely.”
5 Facts
- Michael was left-handed.
- He believed that extraterrestrials exist.
- Collins was the first spaceman to take two spacewalks during a mission.
- He designed the Apollo 11 mission emblem.
- He was born on Halloween.
Where Was Collins Born?
Michael Collins was born in Rome, Italy, on October 31, 1930 – passed away on April 28, 2021.
Inspired by John Glenn, he was chosen by NASA to be part of the third group of astronauts.
His first spaceflight was the Gemini 10 mission, where he performed a spacewalk.
His second was Apollo 11, the first Moon landing in human history.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin took man’s first steps on the Moon, a third crew member orbited high above.
Collins waited in the command module while his fellow astronauts spent more than 21 hours on the lunar surface.
He was the first astronaut to orbit the far side of the Moon alone; on each pass on the far side, he was cut off from human contact on Earth because there were no satellites available to relay his communications back to Earth.
Military Career
On October 31, 1930, Michael Collins was born in Rome, Italy, where his father, United States Army Major General James Lawton Collins, was stationed.
After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended St. Albans School.
During this time, he applied and was accepted to West Point Military Academy in New York and decided to follow his father, two uncles, brother, and cousin into the armed services.
In 1952, Collins graduated from West Point with a Bachelor of Science degree.
He joined the Air Force that same year and completed flight training in Columbus, Mississippi.
His performance earned him a position on an advanced day fighter training team at Nellis Air Force Base, flying the F-86 Sabres.
An assignment followed this to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at the George Air Force Base, where he learned how to deliver nuclear weapons.
He also served as an experimental flight test officer at Edwards Air Force Base in California, testing jet fighters.
The Astronaut
Collins circled the Moon, completely alone, for more than a day.
He listened as his fellow astronauts walked around the jagged terrain in their puffy white suits, unpacked science instruments, and scooped lunar rocks into boxes.
The voices vanished every couple of hours as Collins’s command module slipped behind the Moon, where neither the astronauts nor Mission Control could reach him.
The Finest Sight Was The Lunar Module
The views were stunning all around. But for Collins, the finest sight was the lunar module returning, a small dot moving in the distance, a speck of black against the gleaming gray.
Soon Neil and Buzz would be back inside. They could all go home.
Collins decided to become an astronaut after watching John Glenn’s Mercury-Atlas 6 flight.
He applied for the second group of astronauts that same year but was not accepted.
Disappointed but undaunted, Collins entered the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School as the Air Force began to research space.
That year, NASA once again called for astronaut applications, and Collins was more prepared than ever.
In 1963 he was chosen by NASA to be part of the third group of astronauts.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins described the “Eagle” as “the weirdest looking contraption I have ever seen in the sky.”
Yet, it carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.
Two Spaceflights
Collins made two spaceflights. The first was the Gemini 10 mission on July 18, 1966, where he performed a spacewalk.
The second was the famous Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969—the first lunar landing in history.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin accompanied him. Michael Collins was 38 years old when he flew to the Moon.
Collins remained in the Command Module while his fellow crewmates walked on the Moon’s surface.
Collins continued circling the Moon until July 21, when Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined him.
Michael said one of the things that struck him most was how the Earth looked from space — “peaceful and serene but also delicate.”
The next day, he and his fellow astronauts left lunar orbit.
They landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Collins, Armstrong, and Aldrin were all awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.
However, Aldrin and Armstrong received a majority of the public credit for the historical event, although Collins was also on the flight.
Private Life
Collins left NASA in January 1970, and one year later, he joined the Smithsonian Institution administrative staff in Washington, D.C.
In 1980, he entered the private sector, working as an aerospace consultant.
In his spare time, Collins says he stays active and spends his days “worrying about the stock market” and “searching for a good bottle of cabernet under ten dollars.”
Did Michael Collins have a wife?
Ralph Morse
Michael Collins and his wife Pat remained married until her passing in 2014, and the couple had three children.
Michael has said he’s gotten “oodles and oodles” of attention for his role in the historic mission.
But he hasn’t appeared to face the same crushing weight of household-name recognition Aldrin and Armstrong did.
Credit: Ralph Morse/Life.
Collins will always be associated with the Moon, although he never walked on the Moon.
Michael Collins’ name will forever be linked with it: One of the craters was named in his honor.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and please feel free to browse my website for more interesting facts about the historic missions to the Moon.
See also my posts on: Why was the Saturn V rocket painted white and black?
There’s a pretty cool answer to this one. Find out here. The answer will surprise you.
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