Michael Collins (astronaut)

Michael Collins (October 31, 1930 – April 28, 2021) was an American astronaut, test pilot, and U.S. Air Force Reserve major general. He is best known for piloting the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first crewed lunar landing. Collins was born in Rome, where his father served as the U.S. military attaché. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1952, following his father, brother, uncle, and cousin into military service. He joined the Air Force and flew F-86 Sabre fighters at Chambley-Bussières Air Base in France. In 1960, he was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and later graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class III). Selected as part of NASA’s third astronaut group in 1963, Collins flew two space missions. His first was Gemini 10 in 1966, where he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and completed two spacewalks. On Apollo 11 in 1969, he became one of 24 Apollo astronauts to reach the Moon, orbiting it thirty times. He was the fourth person (and third American) to spacewalk, the first to perform more than one spacewalk, and, after John Young on Apollo 10, the second person to orbit the Moon alone. After leaving NASA in 1970, Collins worked as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A year later, he became director of the National Air and Space Museum, serving until 1978, when he became undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980, he joined LTV Aerospace as vice president, resigning in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Along with his Apollo 11 crewmates, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011. Collins was born on October 31, 1930, in Rome, Italy, the second son of U.S. Army officer James Lawton Collins and Virginia C. Collins. He had an older brother, James Lawton Collins Jr., and two older sisters, Virginia and Agnes. His mother was of British descent; his father’s family was Irish. For his first 17 years, Collins moved frequently due to his father’s Army postings, living in Rome; Oklahoma; Governors Island, New York; Fort Hoyle, Maryland; Fort Hayes, Ohio; Puerto Rico; San Antonio, Texas; and Alexandria, Virginia. As a boy, he served as an altar boy at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., but later noted he was “probably the only astronaut who had never been a Boy Scout.” He took his first plane ride in Puerto Rico in a Grumman Widgeon, and the pilot let him fly it for part of the trip. He wanted to fly again, but World War II prevented it. He studied for two years at Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After the U.S. entered World War II, his family moved to Washington, D.C., where Collins attended St. Albans School and graduated in 1948. His mother wanted him to enter diplomacy, but he chose to follow his father, two uncles, brother, and cousin into the military. He received an appointment to West Point, where his father and older brother had graduated in 1907 and 1939. He graduated on June 3, 1952, with a Bachelor of Science in military science, ranking 185th out of 527 cadets in a class that included future astronaut Ed White. Collins chose the Air Force partly out of wonder for aviation’s future and partly to avoid nepotism accusations in the Army, where his brother was a colonel, his father a major general, and his uncle, General J. Lawton Collins, was Army Chief of Staff. The Air Force Academy was still under construction, so West Point graduates could still receive Air Force commissions. Promotion in the Air Force was slower than in the Army due to the many young officers commissioned during World War II. Collins began basic flight training in a T-6 Texan at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, in August 1952, then moved to San Marcos Air Force Base, Texas, for instrument and formation flying, and finally to James Connally Air Force Base in Waco, Texas, for jet training. Flying came easily to him, and he had little fear of failure. He earned his wings at Waco, and in September 1953 was selected for advanced day-fighter training at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, flying F-86 Sabres. The training was dangerous; eleven people died in accidents during his 22 weeks there. In January 1954, he was assigned to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at George Air Force Base, California, where he learned ground attack and nuclear weapons delivery 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. During a NATO exercise that year, he ejected from an F-86 near Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base after a fire started behind the cockpit.