MICHAEL COLLINS (astronaut)

Michael Collins (Rome, October 31, 1930-Naples, Florida, April 28, 2021)[1] was an
American astronaut and aviator who flew in 1969 in the Columbia command module of the Apollo
11 mission around the Moon. While his companions Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first
moon landing in history. He was also a test pilot and a reserve major general in the United States Air
Force. Before becoming an astronaut, Collins had graduated from the United States Military
Academy in 1952. He was selected in 1963 as a member of the fourteen NASA third group
astronauts and flew into space twice. His first space flight took place in 1966 on the Gemini 10
mission, in which, together with pilot commander John W. Young, he made a space encounter with
two different spacecraft and completed two extravehicular activities (EVA or space walks). On the
historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969, he flew to the Moon and orbited it thirty times. Collins was the
fourth person to do a spacewalk, the first to do more than one, and the second, after his partner
Young, to orbit the Moon alone. He received numerous decorations from various countries, including
the Exceptional Service Medal and the Distinguished NASA Service Medal. In his last years of life
he worked as an aerospace consultant and writer.

Currently the suit he used during Apollo 11 remains in the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow.

He died on April 28, 2021 at the age of 90 after suffering from cancer.