Michael Collins (astronaut)

Michael Collins (October 31, 1930 – April 28, 2021) was an

American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Michael Collins
Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the
surface. He was also a test pilot and major general in the U.S. Air
Force Reserves.

Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy with

the Class of 1952. He joined the United States Air Force, and flew
F-86 Sabre fighters at Chambley-Bussières Air Base, France. He
was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot
School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960, also graduating from
the Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class III).

Selected as part of NASA's third group of 14 astronauts in 1963,

Collins flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10
in 1966, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed
orbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and undertook two Collins three months before the launch
extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). On the of the Apollo 11, 1969
1969 Apollo 11 mission he became one of 24 people to fly to the 12th Assistant Secretary of State for
Moon, which he orbited thirty times. He was the fourth person (and Public Affairs
third American) to perform a spacewalk, the first person to have In office
performed more than one spacewalk, and, after Young, who flew January 6, 1970 – April 11, 1971
the command module on Apollo 10, the second person to orbit the
President Richard Nixon
Moon alone.
Preceded by Dixon Donnelley
After retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins took a job in the
Succeeded by Carol Laise
Department of State as Assistant Secretary of State for Public
Affairs. A year later, he became the director of the National Air and Personal details
Space Museum, and held this position until 1978, when he stepped Born October 31, 1930
down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In Rome, Italy
1980, he took a job as vice president of LTV Aerospace. He
resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Along with his Died April 28, 2021
Apollo 11 crewmates, Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal (aged 90)
of Freedom in 1969 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011. Naples, Florida, U.S.
Spouse(s) Patricia Finnegan
(m. 1957; died 2014)
Contents Children 3, including Kate

Childhood Relatives James Collins

(father)
Military service
James Collins Jr.
Fighter pilot
(brother)
Test pilot
J. Lawton Collins
Space program (uncle)
Project Gemini
Education United States
 Crew assignments Military Academy
Gemini 10 (BS)
Apollo program Signature
Apollo 8
Military service
Apollo 11
Allegiance United States
Post-NASA activities
Branch/service United States Air
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Force
Director of the National Air and Space Museum
Other activities Years of 1952–1970 (active
service duty)
Death 1970–1982
Honors and awards (reserve)
In popular culture Rank Major General
See also Awards Air Force
Works Distinguished
Notes Service Medal

References Distinguished Flying

Cross
Further reading
Legion of Merit
External links
Presidential Medal of
Freedom
Childhood NASA Distinguished
Service Medal
Collins was born on October 31, NASA Exceptional
1930, in Rome, Italy. [1][2] He was Service Medal
the second son of James Lawton
Collins (1882–1963),[3] a career Space career
U.S. Army officer, who was the NASA Astronaut
U.S. military attaché there from
1928 to 1932, and Virginia C. née Time in space 11 days, 2 hours, 4
Stewart (1895–1987).[4] Collins minutes, 43 seconds
was the grandson of Jeremiah Selection 1963 NASA Group 3
Bernard Collins who emigrated to
Total EVAs 2
America in the 1860s from
Dunmanway, Co. Cork in Total EVA time 1 hour 28 minutes
Ireland.[5][6] Collins had an older Missions Gemini 10, Apollo 11
Commemorative plaque in
brother, James Lawton Collins Jr. Mission
(1917–2002), [7][8] and two older
via Tevere, Rome, marking insignia
Collins' birthplace sisters, Virginia and Agnes. For
the first 17 years of his life, Collins
lived in many places as the Army posted his father to different locations:
Rome; Oklahoma; Governors Island, New York; Fort Hoyle (near Baltimore, Maryland); Fort Hayes (near
Columbus, Ohio); Puerto Rico; San Antonio, Texas; and Alexandria, Virginia.[3] He took his first plane ride in
Puerto Rico aboard a Grumman Widgeon; the pilot allowed him to fly it for a portion of the flight. He wanted
to fly again, but since World War II started soon after, he was unable.[9] Collins studied for two years in the
Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[10]
After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Collins attended
St. Albans School and graduated in 1948.[11][3] His mother wanted him to enter the diplomatic service,[3] but
he decided to follow his father, two uncles, brother and cousin into the armed services. He received an
appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which his father and his older brother
had graduated in 1907 and 1939 respectively.[8] He graduated on June 3, 1952, with a Bachelor of Science
degree in military science,[12] finishing 185th of 527 cadets in the class, which included future fellow astronaut
Ed White.[3][13]

Collins' decision to join the United States Air Force (USAF) was motivated by both the wonder of what the
next fifty years might bring in aeronautics, and to avoid accusations of nepotism had he joined the Army
where his brother was already a colonel, his father had reached the rank of major general and his uncle,
General J. Lawton Collins (1896–1987), was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.[14] The Air Force
Academy, still under construction, would not graduate its first class for several years. In the interim, graduates
of the Military Academy were eligible for Air Force commissions.[15] Promotion was slower in the Air Force
than in the Army, due to the large number of young officers who had been commissioned and promoted
during World War II.[14]

Military service

Fighter pilot

Collins began basic flight training in the T-6 Texan at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi, in
August 1952, then moved on to San Marcos Air Force Base in Texas to learn instrument and formation flying,
and finally to James Connally Air Force Base in Waco, Texas, for training in jet aircraft. Flying came easily to
him, and unlike many of his colleagues, he had little fear of failure. He was awarded his wings upon
completion of the course at Waco, and in September 1953, he was chosen for advanced day-fighter training at
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, flying F-86 Sabres. The training was dangerous; eleven people were killed in
accidents during the 22 weeks he was there.[13][16]

This was followed by an assignment in January 1954 to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at George Air Force
Base, California, where he learned ground attack and nuclear weapons delivery techniques in the F-86. He
moved with the 21st to Chambley-Bussières Air Base, France, in December 1954. He won first prize in a
1956 gunnery competition.[13][16] During a NATO exercise that year, he was forced to eject from an F-86,
near Chaumont-Semoutiers AB, after a fire started aft of the cockpit.[17]

Collins met his future wife, Patricia Mary Finnegan from Boston, Massachusetts, in an officers' mess. A
graduate of Emmanuel College, where she majored in English, she was a social worker, dealing mainly with
single mothers. To see more of the world, she was working for the Air Force service club. After getting
engaged, they had to overcome a difference in religion. Collins was nominally Episcopalian, while Finnegan
came from a staunchly Roman Catholic family. After seeking permission to marry from Finnegan's father, and
delaying their wedding when Collins was redeployed to West Germany during the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution, they married in 1957.[18] They had a daughter, actress Kate Collins, in 1959,[12] a second
daughter, Ann, in 1961 and a son, Michael, in 1963.[19]

After Collins returned to the United States in late 1957, he attended an aircraft maintenance officer course at
Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois. He would later describe this school as "dismal" in his autobiography; he
found the classwork boring, flying time scarce, and the equipment outdated. Upon completing the course, he
commanded a Mobile Training Detachment (MTD) and traveled to air bases around the world.[20] The
detachment trained mechanics on the servicing of new aircraft, and pilots how to fly them. He later became the
first commander of a Field Training Detachment (FTD 523) back at Nellis AFB, which was a similar kind of
unit, except that the students traveled to him.[21]
Test pilot

Collins' MTD posting allowed him to accumulate over 1,500 flying

hours, the minimum required for admission to the USAF
Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base,
California. His application was successful, and on August 29, 1960,
he became a member of Class 60C,[22] which included Frank
Borman, Jim Irwin and Tom Stafford, who later became astronauts.
Military test pilot instruction started with the North American T-28
Trojan, and proceeded through the high performance F-86 Sabre, B-
57 Canberra, T-33 Shooting Star, and the F-104 Starfighter.[23]
Collins was a heavy smoker, but quit in 1962 after suffering a ARPS Class III graduates. Front row:
particularly bad hangover. The next day, he spent what he described Ed Givens, Tommie Benefield,
as the worst four hours of his life in the co-pilot's seat of a B-52 Charles Bassett, Greg Neubeck and
Stratofortress while going through the initial stages of nicotine Collins. Back row: Al Atwell, Neil
withdrawal.[24] Garland, Jim Roman, Al Uhalt and
Joe Engle
The inspiration for Collins in his decision to become a NASA
astronaut was the Mercury Atlas 6 flight of John Glenn on February
20, 1962, and the thought of being able to circle the Earth in 90 minutes. Collins applied for the second group
of astronauts that year. To raise the numbers of Air Force pilots selected, the Air Force sent their best
applicants to a "charm school". Medical and psychiatric examinations at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and
interviews at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston followed. In mid-September, he found out he
had not been accepted. It was a blow even though he did not expect to be selected. Collins rated the second
group of nine as better than the Mercury Seven who preceded them, or the five groups that followed, including
his own.[25]

That year the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School became the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot
School (ARPS),[26] as the Air Force tried to enter into space research through the X-15 and X-20 programs.
Collins applied for a new postgraduate course offered into the basics of spaceflight. He was accepted into the
third class on October 22, 1962. Other students in his eleven-member class included three future astronauts:
Charles Bassett, Edward Givens and Joe Engle.[27] Along with classwork, they also flew up to about 90,000
feet (27,000 m) in F-104 Starfighters. As they passed through the top of their arc, they would experience a
brief period of weightlessness. On finishing this course he returned to fighter operations in May 1963.[28]

At the start of June, NASA once again called for astronaut applications. Collins went through the same
process as with his first application, though he did not take the psychiatric evaluation. He was at Randolph Air
Force Base, Texas, on October 14 when Deke Slayton, the Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA, called and
asked if he was still interested in becoming an astronaut. Bassett was also accepted.[29] By this time Collins
had flown over 3,000 hours, of which 2,700 were in jet aircraft.[30]

Space program
Compared with the first two groups of astronauts, the third group of fourteen astronauts, which included
Collins, was younger, with an average age of 31—the first two groups had an average age of 34.5 and 32.5 at
their time of selection—and was better educated, with an average of 5.6 years of tertiary education; but they
had fewer flying hours—2,300 on average compared with 3,500 and 2,800 for the first two groups, and only
eight of the fourteen were test pilots. Of the thirty astronauts selected in the first three groups, only Collins and
his third group colleague William Anders were born outside the United States,[31][32] and Collins was the only
one with an older brother; all the rest were the eldest or only sons in their families.[33] Training began with a
240-hour course on the basics of spaceflight. Fifty-eight hours of this was devoted to geology, something
Collins did not readily understand and in which he never became very interested.[34] At the end, Alan
Shepard, the Chief of the Astronaut Office, asked the fourteen to rank their fellow astronauts in the order they
would want to fly with them in space. Collins picked David Scott in the number one position.[35]

Project Gemini

Crew assignments

After this basic training, the third group were assigned specializations. Collins received his first choice:
pressure suits and extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks).[36] His job was to monitor
development and act as a liaison between the Astronaut Office and contractors.[37] He was disturbed by the
secretive planning of Ed White's EVA on Gemini 4, because he was not involved despite being the person
with the greatest knowledge of the subject.[38]

In late June 1965, Collins received his first crew assignment: the backup pilot
for Gemini 7,[39] with his West Point classmate Ed White named as the
backup mission commander. Collins was the first of the fourteen to receive a
crew assignment,[40] but the first to fly was Scott on Gemini 8,[41] and
Bassett was assigned to Gemini 9.[42] Under the system of crew rotation
established by Slayton, being on the backup crew of Gemini 7 set Collins up
to pilot Gemini 10.[43] Gemini 7 was commanded by Borman, whom Collins
knew well from their days at Edwards, with Jim Lovell as the pilot. Collins
made a point of providing a daily briefing to their wives, Susan Borman and
Marilyn Lovell, on the progress of the two-week Gemini 7 mission.[44]

After the successful completion of Gemini 7 on January 24, 1966, Collins

Collins with John Young and was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10, but with John Young as
a model of their Gemini mission commander, as White moved on to the Apollo program.[42][45] Jim
spacecraft and Titan II Lovell and Buzz Aldrin were designated as the backup commander and pilot
booster
respectively.[46] The arrangements were disturbed on February 28 by the
deaths of the Gemini 9 crew, Bassett and Elliot See, in the 1966 NASA T-38
crash. They were replaced on Gemini 9 by their backups, Stafford and Gene
Cernan. Cernan was the second of the fourteen to fly in space. Lovell and Aldrin became their backups, and
Alan Bean and C.C. Williams took their place as the Gemini 10 backup crew.[47] Collins would be the
seventeenth American, and third member of his group, to fly in space.[48]

Training for Gemini 10 was interrupted in March when Slayton diverted Young, Collins and Williams to
represent their respective services on a panel to select another group of astronauts, along with himself,
Shepard, spacecraft designer Max Faget, and astronaut training officer Warren J. North. Young protested the
loss of a week's training to no avail. Applying strict criteria for age, flying experience and education reduced
the number of applicants to 35. The panel interviewed each for an hour, and rated nineteen as qualified.
Collins was surprised when Slayton elected to take them all. Slayton later admitted that he too had doubts; he
already had enough astronauts for Project Apollo as far as the first Moon landing, but post-Apollo plans were
for up to 30 missions. Such a large intake therefore seemed prudent. Ten of the nineteen had test pilot
experience, and seven were graduates of the ARPS.[49][50][51]

Gemini 10
Fifteen scientific experiments were carried on Gemini 10—more than any
other Gemini mission except the two-week-long Gemini 7.[52] After Gemini
9's EVA ran into problems, the remaining Gemini objectives had to be
completed on the last three flights. While the overall number of objectives
increased, the difficulty of Collins' EVA was scaled significantly back. There
was no backpack or astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU), as there had been on
Gemini 8.[45]

Their three-day mission called for them to rendezvous with two Agena Target
Vehicles, undertake two EVAs, and perform 15 different experiments. The
training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies of orbital
rendezvous, controlling the Agena and, for Collins, the EVA. For what was to
be the fourth ever EVA, underwater training was not performed, mostly
because Collins did not have the time. To train to use the nitrogen gun he
would use for propulsion, a smooth metal surface about the size of a boxing John Young (left) and
ring was set up. He would stand on a circular pad that used gas jets to raise Michael Collins aboard the
itself off the surface. Using the nitrogen gun he would practice propelling recovery ship
himself across the "slippery table".[53]

Gemini 10 lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral at 05:20 local time on July 18, 1966. Upon
reaching orbit, it was about 860 nautical miles (1,600 km) behind the Agena target vehicle, which had been
launched 100 minutes earlier. A rendezvous was achieved on Gemini 10's fourth orbit at 10:43, followed by
docking at 11:13.[54][55] The mission plan called for multiple dockings with the Agena target, but an error by
Collins in using the sextant caused them to burn valuable propellant, resulting in Mission Control calling off
this objective to conserve propellant.[56] Once docked, the Agena 10 propulsion system was activated to boost
the astronauts to a new altitude record, 475 miles (764 km) above the Earth, breaking the previous record of
295 miles (475 km) set by Voskhod 2.[57]

A second burn of the Agena 10 engine at 03:58 on July 19 put them

into the same orbit as Agena 8, which had been launched for the
Gemini 8 mission on March 16. For his first EVA Collins did not
leave the Gemini capsule, but stood up through the hatch with an
ultraviolet camera.[54] After he took the ultraviolet photos, Collins
took photos of a plate they brought with them. They were used to
compare photos taken in space with those taken in a laboratory.[58] In
his biography he said he felt at that moment like a Roman god riding
the skies in his chariot.[59]

Agena Target Docking Vehicle
photographed near the Gemini 10
spacecraft
The EVA started on the dark side of the Earth so Collins could take
photos of the Milky Way. Collins' and Young's eyes began to water,
forcing an early end to the EVA.[60] Lithium hydroxide, which was
normally used to remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the cabin, had
accidentally been fed into the astronauts' space suits. The compressor
causing the problem was switched off,[61] and a high oxygen flow
was used to purge the environmental control system.[54]

Prior to Collins' second EVA, the Agena 10 spacecraft was jettisoned. Young positioned the capsule close
enough to Agena 8 for Collins to get to it while attached to his 49-foot (15 m) umbilical.[62] Collins became
the first person to perform two spacewalks in the same mission.[63][64] He found it took much longer to
complete tasks than he expected, something Cernan also experienced during his spacewalk on Gemini 9. He
removed a micrometeorite experiment from the exterior of the spacecraft, and configured his nitrogen
maneuvering thruster. Collins had difficulty reentering the spacecraft, and needed Young to pull him back in
with the umbilical.[62]

The duo activated the retrorockets on their 43rd revolution, and they splashed down in the Atlantic at 04:06 on
July 21, 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) from the recovery vessel, the amphibious assault ship USS Guadalcanal,
and were picked up by helicopter.[62] Collins and Young completed nearly all the major objectives of the
flight.[65] The docking practice and the landmark measurement experiment were cancelled in order to conserve
propellant, and the micrometeorite collector was lost when it drifted out of the spacecraft.[54]

Apollo program

Shortly after Gemini 10, Collins was assigned to the backup crew for
the second crewed Apollo flight, with Borman as commander (CDR),
Stafford as command module pilot (CMP), and Collins as lunar
module pilot (LMP). Along with learning the new Apollo command
and service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM),
Collins received helicopter training, as these were thought to be the
best way to simulate the landing approach of the LM. After the
completion of Project Gemini, it was decided to cancel the Apollo 2
flight, since it would just repeat the Apollo 1 flight. Stafford was
given his own crew, and Anders was assigned to Borman's crew. Collins (center) with William Anders
Slayton had decided an Apollo mission commander should be an (left) and Frank Borman (right)
experienced astronaut who had already flown a mission, and that on
flights with a LM, the CMP should also have some spaceflight
experience, something Anders did not yet have, since the CMP would have to fly the CM alone. Collins was
therefore moved to the CMP position on the Apollo 8 prime crew, and Anders became the LMP.[66] The
practice became that the CMP would be the next most senior member of the crew, and that they would go on
to command later Apollo flights.[67]

Staff meetings were always held on Fridays in the Astronaut Office, and it was here that Collins found himself
on January 27, 1967. Don Gregory was running the meeting in the absence of Shepard and so it was he who
answered the red phone to be informed there had been a fire in the Apollo 1 CM, and that the three astronauts,
Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were dead. When the enormity of the situation was ascertained, it
fell on Collins to go to the Chaffee household to inform Martha Chaffee that her husband had died. The
Astronaut Office had learned to be proactive in informing astronauts' families of a death quickly, because of
the death of Theodore Freeman in an aircraft crash in 1964, when a newspaper reporter was the first to his
house.[68]

Collins and Scott were sent by NASA to the Paris Air Show in May 1967. There they met cosmonauts Pavel
Belyayev and Konstantin Feoktistov, with whom they drank vodka on the Soviets' Tupolev Tu-134. Collins
found it interesting that some cosmonauts were doing helicopter training like their American counterparts, and
Belyayev said he hoped to make a circumlunar flight soon. The astronauts' wives had accompanied them on
the trip, and Collins and his wife Pat were compelled by NASA and their friends to travel to Metz where they
had been married ten years before. There, they found a third wedding ceremony had been arranged for them
(ten years previously they had already had civil and religious ceremonies), so they could renew their vows.[69]

During 1968, Collins noticed his legs were not working as they should, first during handball games, then as he
walked down stairs. His knee would almost give way, and his left leg had unusual sensations when in hot and
cold water. Reluctantly he sought medical advice and the diagnosis was a cervical disc herniation, requiring
two vertebrae to be fused.[70] The surgery was performed at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force
Base, Texas. The planned recuperation time was three to six months.[71] Collins spent three months in a neck
brace. As a result, he was removed from the prime crew of Apollo 9 and his backup, Jim Lovell, replaced him
as CMP. When the Apollo 8 mission was changed from a CSM/LM mission in high Earth orbit to a CSM-only
flight around the Moon, both prime and backup crews for Apollo 8 and 9 swapped places.[72]

Apollo 8

Having trained for the flight, Collins was made a capsule communicator (CAPCOM), an astronaut stationed at
Mission Control responsible for communicating directly with the crew during a mission.[73] As part of the
Green Team, he covered the launch phase up to translunar injection, the rocket burn that sent Apollo 8 to the
Moon.[74] The successful completion of the first crewed circumlunar flight was followed by the announcement
of the Apollo 11 crew of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. At that time, in January 1969, it was not certain this
would be the lunar landing mission; this depended on the success of Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 testing the
LM.[75]

Apollo 11

As CMP, Collins' training was completely different

from the LM and lunar EVA, and was sometimes done
without Armstrong or Aldrin being present. Along with
simulators, there were measurements for pressure suits,
centrifuge training to simulate the reentry, and
practicing docking with a huge rig at NASA Langley
Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. Since he would
be the active participant in the rendezvous with the LM,
Collins compiled a book[76] of 18 different rendezvous
schemes for various scenarios including ones where the
LM did not land, or it launched too early or too late.
This book ran for 117 pages.[76]
The crew of Apollo 11: from left to right, Neil The mission patch of Apollo 11 was the creation of
Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. Collins. Jim Lovell, the backup commander, mentioned
the idea of eagles, a symbol of the United States.
Collins liked the idea and found a painting by artist
Walter A. Weber in a National Geographic Society book, Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America,[77]
traced it and added the lunar surface below and Earth in the background. The idea of an olive branch, a
symbol of peace, came from a computer expert at the simulators. The call sign Columbia for the CSM came
from Julian Scheer, the NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. He mentioned the idea to Collins in
a conversation and Collins could not think of anything better.[78][79]

During the training for Apollo 11, Slayton offered to get Collins back into the crew sequence after the flight.
Collins would almost certainly have been the backup commander of Apollo 14, followed by commander of
Apollo 17, but he told Slayton he did not want to travel to space again if Apollo 11 was successful. The
difficult schedule of an astronaut strained his family life. He wanted to help achieve John F. Kennedy's goal of
landing on the Moon within the decade and had no interest in further exploration of the Moon once the goal
had been achieved. The assignment was given to Cernan.[67][80][81]

An estimated one million spectators watched the launch of Apollo 11 from the highways and beaches in the
vicinity of the launch site. The launch was televised live in 33 countries, with an estimated 25 million viewers
in the United States alone. Millions more listened to radio broadcasts.[82][83] Propelled by a giant Saturn V
rocket, Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at
13:32 UTC (09:32 EDT),[84] and entered Earth orbit twelve minutes later. After one and a half orbits, the S-
IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory
toward the Moon. About 30 minutes later, Collins performed the
transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver. This involved
separating Columbia from the spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and
docking with the Lunar Module Eagle. After it was extracted, the
combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew
on a trajectory past it.[85]

On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and

fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit.[85] In the thirty
orbits that followed,[86] the crew saw passing views of their landing Collins in the command module
site in the southern Sea of Tranquillity about 12 miles (19 km) simulator
southwest of the crater Sabine D.[87] At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20,
Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle and began the final preparations
for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia.[85] Collins, alone aboard Columbia, inspected
Eagle as it rotated before him to ensure the craft was not damaged and that the landing gear had correctly
deployed before heading for the surface.[88][89]

During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely.
Although it has been said "not since Adam has any human known
such solitude",[90] Collins felt very much a part of the mission. In his
autobiography he wrote "this venture has been structured for three
men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other
two". In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio
contact with the Earth while Columbia passed round the far side of
the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or loneliness, but rather
"awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost
exultation". [91]

One of Collins' first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the
Columbia in lunar orbit and piloted by
ground. To give Collins an idea where to look, Mission Control
Collins alone, photographed from radioed that they believed the lunar module landed about four miles
Eagle off target. Each time he passed over the suspected lunar landing site,
he tried in vain to find the lunar module. On his first two orbits on the
far side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as
dumping excess water produced by the fuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to
return.[92] Columbia orbited the Moon thirty times.[93]

Just before he reached the far side on the third orbit, Mission Control informed Collins there was a problem
with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts of Columbia might freeze. Mission Control
advised him to assume manual control and implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure
17. Instead, Collins flicked the switch on the offending system from automatic to manual and back to
automatic again, and carried on with normal housekeeping chores, while keeping an eye on the temperature.
When Columbia came back around to the near side of the Moon again, he was able to report that the problem
had been resolved. For the next couple of orbits, he described his time on the far side of the Moon as
"relaxing". After Aldrin and Armstrong completed their EVA, Collins slept so he could be rested for the
rendezvous. While the flight plan called for Eagle to meet up with Columbia, Collins was prepared for certain
contingencies in which he would fly Columbia down to meet Eagle.[94] After spending so much time with the
CSM, Collins felt compelled to leave his mark on it, so during the second night following their return from the
Moon, he went to the lower equipment bay of the CM and wrote:

"Spacecraft 107 – alias Apollo 11 – alias Columbia. The best ship to come down the line.
God Bless Her. Michael Collins, CMP"[95]
In a July 2009 interview with The Guardian, Collins said that he was
very worried about Armstrong and Aldrin's safety. He was also
concerned in the event of their deaths on the Moon, he would be
forced to return to Earth alone and, as the mission's sole survivor, be
regarded as "a marked man for life".[96]

At 17:54 UTC on July 21, Eagle lifted off from the Moon to rejoin
Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit.[85] After rendezvous with
Columbia, the ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit, and
Columbia made its way back to Earth.[97]

Columbia splashed down in the Pacific 1,440 nmi (2,660 km) east of
Wake Island at 16:50 UTC (05:50 local time) on July 24.[85][98] The
total mission duration was eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and
Collins sits in the hatch of the Apollo
thirty-five seconds.[93] Divers passed biological isolation garments 11 command module after its return
(BIGs) to the astronauts, and assisted them into the life raft. Though to the MSC's Lunar Receiving
the chance of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface was Laboratory for detailed examination
believed to be remote, it was still considered a possibility. The
astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter, and flown
to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet,[99] where they spent the first part of the Earth-based portion of 21 days of
quarantine (time in space was also counted), before moving on to Houston.[100]

On August 13, the three astronauts rode in parades in their honor in New York and Chicago, with about six
million attendees.[101][102] On the same evening in Los Angeles there was an official state dinner to celebrate
the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, the Chief Justice of the United States, and
ambassadors from 83 nations at the Century Plaza Hotel.[101][103] In September, the astronauts embarked on a
38-day world tour that brought them to 22 foreign countries and included visits with world leaders.[104][105]

Post-NASA activities

Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs

NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine told Collins that Secretary of State

Collins, February 2009
William P. Rogers was interested in appointing Collins to the position of
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. After the crew returned to the
U.S. in November, Collins sat down with Rogers and accepted the position
on the urgings of President Nixon.[106] He was an unusual choice for the role,
as he was neither a journalist nor a career diplomat. Nor, unlike some of his
predecessors, did he act as the department spokesperson. Instead, as the head
of the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, his role was that of
managing relations with the public at large. He had a staff of 115 and a budget
of $2.5 million,[107] but this was small compared with the 6,000 public affairs
staff at the United States Department of Defense.[108]

Collins was appointed to the position on December 15, 1969 and began his
work on January 6, 1970.[109] Collins took over at a very difficult time. The Vietnam War was going badly,
and the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings had triggered a wave of protests and unrest across
the country. He had no illusions about his ability to change minds, but attempted to engage with the public all
the same, playing on his Apollo 11 fame.[108] He attributed part of the nation's problems to insularity. In a
1970 commencement speech at Saint Michael's College in Vermont, he told his audience that "Farmers speak
to farmers, students to students, business leaders to other business leaders, but this intramural talk serves
mainly to mirror one's beliefs, to reinforce existing prejudices, to lock out opposing views".[110]

Collins realized he was not enjoying the job, and secured President Nixon's permission to become the Director
of the National Air and Space Museum.[111] His departure was officially announced on February 22,
1971.[112] He worked in that role until April 11, 1971.[113] The position remained vacant until Carol Laise
replaced him in October 1973.[114][115]

Director of the National Air and Space Museum

On August 12, 1946, Congress passed an authorization bill for a National Air Museum, to be administered by
the Smithsonian Institution, and located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.[116] Under the U.S.
legislative system, authorization is insufficient; Congress also has to pass an appropriation bill allocating
funding. Since this was not done, there was no money for the museum building.[117]

The 1957 Sputnik crisis and the resulting Space Race led to a surge of
public interest in space exploration. The Freedom 7 and Friendship 7
Project Mercury spacecraft were donated to the Smithsonian, and
2,670,000 visitors descended on the Arts and Industries Building
when they were put on display in 1963. The museum was renamed
the National Air and Space Museum in 1966, but there was still no
funding to build it.[118] Apollo 11 created another surge of interest in
space. An exhibition of a Moon rock attracted 200,000 visitors in one
month.[119] On May 19, 1970, Senator Barry Goldwater, a retired The Milestones of Flight Hall of the
USAF major general, gave an impassioned speech in the Senate for National Air and Space Museum in
funding of a museum building.[120] Washington, D.C.

The job had a clearly defined and tangible goal: to obtain

Congressional funding, and to build the museum.[108] Collins lobbied hard for the new museum. With the help
of Goldwater in particular, Congress relented, and on August 10, 1972, approved $13 million and contract
authority of $27 million for its construction.[121] The $40 million budget was lower than he had hoped for, and
the building had to be scaled back and some economies made.[122]

In addition to cost pressure, there was also severe time pressure, as the museum was scheduled to open on July
4, 1976, as part of celebrations of the upcoming United States Bicentennial. The design by architect Gyo
Obata of the St. Louis firm Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaumof aimed to harmonize the new museum with the
other ones on the National Mall, so the exteriors were faced with Tennessee marble to match the façade of the
National Gallery of Art.[123] Gilbane Building Company was awarded the construction contract. Everything
was fast-tracked. Contracts were awarded as soon as each component of the design was complete. This
allowed the first contract to be awarded within five months of the start of design. The design was completed in
just nine months, and all contracts were awarded within a year of the start of design.[124]

Ground was broken on the new museum on November 20, 1972.[125] The building was built horizontally
rather than vertically, as is the norm, so that work on the interiors could proceed concurrently.[124] Overseeing
construction was but a part of Collins' task: he also had to hire museum staff, oversee the creation of exhibits,
and launch the Museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, a new division devoted to research and
analysis of lunar and planetary spacecraft data.[126] Collins described the project as "a monumental effort" in
which "individual creativity combined with dedicated teamwork and plain hard work".[123]
 The museum was completed on budget, and opened three days ahead
of schedule on July 1, 1976.[127][128] President Gerald Ford presided
over the formal opening ceremony.[123] Over one million visitors
passed through its doors in the first month, and it quickly established
itself as one of the world's most popular museums, averaging between
eight and nine million visitors per annum over the next two decades.
Visitors entering saw Columbia in the Milestones of Flight Hall, along
with the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis and Glamorous
Columbia at the National Air and Glennis.[129]
Space Museum
Collins held the directorship until 1978,[130] when he stepped down
to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution.[131] During
this time, although no longer an active-duty USAF officer after he joined the State Department in 1970, he
remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He attained the rank of major general in 1976, and retired in
1982.[132]

Other activities

Collins completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced

Management Program in 1974, and in 1980 became vice president of
LTV Aerospace in Arlington, Virginia.[133] He resigned in 1985 to
start his own consulting firm, Michael Collins Associates.[134] He
wrote an autobiography in 1974 entitled Carrying the Fire: An
Astronaut's Journeys. The New York Times writer John Wilford wrote
that it is "generally regarded as the best account of what it is like to be
an astronaut."[135]

Collins has also written Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in

Space (1988), a history of the American space program, Mission to Collins, NASA Deputy Administrator
Mars (1990), a non-fiction book on human spaceflight to Mars, and Lori Garver and NASA Administrator
Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places (1976), revised and re- Charles Bolden at a memorial
service for Neil Armstrong in 2012
released as Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story (1994), a
children's book on his experiences. Along with his writing, he has
painted watercolors, mostly of the Florida Everglades or aircraft he
has flown; they are rarely space-related.[136] He did not initially sign his paintings to avoid them increasing in
price just because they had his autograph on them.[137]

Collins lived with his wife, Pat, in Marco Island, Florida, and Avon, North Carolina, until her death in April
2014.[138]

Death
On April 28, 2021, Collins died from cancer in Naples, Florida at the age of 90.[139][140]

Honors and awards

Collins was a long-time trustee of the National Geographic Society and served as Trustee Emeritus.[135] He
was also a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics.[141][142]
 Collins was inducted into four halls of fame: the International Air & Space
Hall of Fame (1971),[143] the International Space Hall of Fame (1977),[144]
the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame (1993),[1][145] and the National Aviation
Hall of Fame (1985). In 2008 he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of
Honor in Lancaster, California.[146] The International Astronomical Union
honored him by naming an asteroid after him, 6471 Collins.[147] Also, like
the other two Apollo 11 crew members, he has a lunar crater named after
him.[148]

Collins during the
Congressional Gold Medal
ceremony in the Rotunda at
the U.S. Capitol on
November 16, 2011
Collins was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross in 1966 for his
work in the Gemini Project.[149] He was also awarded Air Force Command
Pilot Astronaut Wings.[141] Deputy NASA Administrator Robert Seamans
pinned the NASA Exceptional Service Medal on Collins and Young in 1966
for their role in the Gemini 10 mission.[150] For the Apollo Project, he was
awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal,[151] and the NASA
Distinguished Service Medal.[152][153] He was awarded the Legion of Merit
in 1977.[134]

Along with the rest of the Apollo 11 crew, he was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom with Distinction by President Nixon in 1969 at the state dinner in their honor.[101][154] The
three were awarded the Collier Trophy and the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy in 1969.[155]
The National Aeronautic Association president awarded a duplicate trophy to Collins and Aldrin at a
ceremony.[156][157] The trio received the international Harmon Trophy for aviators in 1970,[158][159]
conferred to them by Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1971.[160] Agnew also presented them the Hubbard
Medal of the National Geographic Society in 1970. He told them, "You've won a place alongside Christopher
Columbus in American history".[161]

Collins also received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award from the Society
of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) in 1970.[162][163] In 1989, some
of his personal papers were transferred to Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University.[134] In 1999, while celebrating the 30th
anniversary of the lunar landing, Vice President Al Gore, who was
also the vice chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution's Board of
Regents, presented the Apollo 11 crew with the Smithsonian's
Langley Gold Medal for aviation. After the ceremony, the crew went
to the White House and presented President Bill Clinton with an Collins with President Donald Trump,
encased Moon rock.[164][165] Vice President Mike Pence and
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
The crew was awarded the New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal in July 2019
in the Capitol Rotunda in 2011. It is the highest civilian award that
can be received in the United States. During the ceremony, NASA
administrator Charles Bolden said, "Those of us who have had the privilege to fly in space followed the trail
they forged."[131][166]

In popular culture
Collins is one of the astronauts featured in the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon.[167] He had a
small part as "Old Man" in the 2009 movie Youth in Revolt.[168] In the 1996 TV movie Apollo 11, he was
played by Jim Metzler,[169] and in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, he was played by
Cary Elwes.[170] In the 2009 TV movie Moon Shot, he was played by Andrew Lincoln.[171] In the 2018 film
First Man, he was portrayed by Lukas Haas,[172] and he is featured in the 2019 documentary film Apollo 11.
For contributions to the television industry, the Apollo 11 astronauts were honored with round plaques on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.[173] In For All Mankind he is portrayed by Ryan Kennedy.[174] In The Crown he
is portrayed by Andrew-Lee Potts.[175]

English rock group Jethro Tull recorded a song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me", which appears on the
Benefit album from 1970. The song compares the feelings of misfitting from vocalist Ian Anderson (and friend
Jeffrey Hammond) with the astronaut's own, as he is left behind by the ones who had the privilege of walking
on the surface of the Moon.[176] In 2013, indie pop group The Boy Least Likely To released the song
"Michael Collins" on the album The Great Perhaps. The song uses Collins' feeling that he was blessed to have
the type of solitude of being truly separated from all other human contact in contrast with modern society's lack
of perspective.[177][178] American folk artist John Craigie recorded a song titled "Michael Collins" for his
2017 album No Rain, No Rose. The song embraces his role as an integral part of the Apollo 11 mission with
the chorus, "Sometimes you take the fame, sometimes you sit back stage, but if it weren't for me them boys
would still be there."[179]

Collins provided narration for the Google Doodle that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's
1969 mission to the Moon.[180]

See also
Apollo 11 in popular culture
List of spaceflight records

Works
Collins, Michael (1974). Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys. New York: Farrar, Straus,
and Giroux. Bibcode:1974cfaa.book.....C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1974cfaa.book.....
C).
Collins, Michael (1976). Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places (https://archive.org/detail
s/flyingtomoonot00coll). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Collins, Michael (1988). Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space (https://archive.org/d
etails/liftoff00coll). Illustrated by James Dean. New York: Grove Press.
Collins, Michael (1990). Mission to Mars (https://archive.org/details/missiontomars00coll). New
York: Grove Weidenfeld.

Notes
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3. Hansen 2005, pp. 344–345.
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s-1.3932390). The Irish Times. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
 6. Murphy, Greg (April 28, 2021). "Astronaut Michael Collins, part of Apollo 11 crew, dies aged 90"
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Further reading
Uusma, Bea (2003). The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11
Astronaut Michael Collins. Carmel, California: Hampton-Brown. ISBN 978-0-7362-2789-6.

External links
Butler, Carol L. (1998). NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History (https://historycollection.jsc.n
asa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/CollinsM/MC_10-8-97.pdf)
Statement From Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins (http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/
jul/HQ_09-164_Collins_statement.txt), NASA Public Release no. 09-164. Collins' statement on
the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, July 9, 2009
Michael Collins, David Mindell (April 1, 2015). Apollo 11's Michael Collins visits MIT/AeroAstro
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmkDRMcjols). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Retrieved November 26, 2015.

Government offices
Assistant Secretary of State for
Preceded by Succeeded by
Public Affairs
Dixon Donnelley Carol Laise
January 6, 1970 – April 11, 1971
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