The Late Great Michael Collins

Apollo 11, the NASA mission that landed men on the moon, was one of the greatest achievements in the history of humanity. Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. Of the three astronauts who formed the crew of Apollo 11, one would never set foot on the moon. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module Columbia. Major General Collins achievement in taking Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon and then bring them back to Earth was impressive. He circled the moon alone and went through a list of 117 contingencies should anything go wrong. For docking with the lunar module Eagle Michael Collins had a notebook with 18 different scenarios. Michael Collins executed the docking procedure perfectly. After his work with NASA, Michael Collins would continue to be an advocate for space exploration. Sadly, Michael Collins died yesterday, April 28 2021, at the age of 90. The cause was cancer.

Michael Collins was born on October 31 1930 in Rome. His father was Major General James Lawton Collins, who was then a U.S. military attaché in Rome. As his father was in the United States Army, Michael Collins spent his childhood in a variety of places. It was following the start of World War II that his family moved to Washington, D.C. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated with Bachelor of Science degree. Due to his interest in aeronautics and wanting to avoid any accusations of nepotism if he joined the United States Army, following his graduation he enlisted in the United States Air Force.

Michael Collins trained as a fighter pilot and aircraft maintenance officer before becoming a test pilot. He was inspired by NASA's Mercury Atlas 6 mission, in which John Glenn circled the Earth three times, on February 20 1962 to become an astronaut. He applied for the second group of astronauts, but he was not accepted. When NASA later called for a third group of astronauts, Michael Collins applied to become an astronaut and was accepted. He served as the back up pilot for Gemini 7 and the pilot on Gemini 10, the latter of which was his first space flight. He was assigned to the backup crew for Apollo 2, but the mission was ultimately cancelled.

In 1968 Michael Collins had to have surgery for a slipped disc. He served on Apollo 8 as a capsule commander, an astronaut at Mission Control who communicates directly with the crew. By the time of Apollo 11, Michael Collins had completely recovered from his surgery. He not only served as the pilot of the Command Module Columbia, but also designed the mission patch for Apollo 11.

Michael Collins elected not to venture into space following Apollo 11, even though NASA's rotation of crew would have made him commander of both Apollo 14 and Apollo 17. He did not wish to go undergo three more years of rigorous training and he wanted to spend more time with his family. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from January 6 1970 to April 11 1971. Afterwards he served as Director of National Air and Space Museum. He later became a vice president of LTV Aerospace and then founded his own consulting firm, Michael Collins Associates.

Throughout it all Michael Collins remained a tireless advocate for space exploration. In 1974 his autobiography Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys was published. He also wrote the books Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places (1976) and Mission to Mars (1990).

Michael Collins never thought of himself as a hero. He once said, "Heroes abound, and should be revered as such, but don’t count astronauts among them. We work very hard; we did our jobs to near perfection, but that was what we had hired on to do. . . . Celebrities? What nonsense." I have to think many Americans would disagree with him. Major General Collins did things that not only took highly specialized skills, but an extraordinary amount of courage. He did things only a very few of us could do. What is more, he made history. He took astronauts to the Moon and brought them home and he did it for the very first time. Any number of things could have gone wrong, any number of mistakes could have been made, but Michael Collins did it without error. After his career as an astronaut, Michael Collins continued to support space exploration and was instrumental in the establishment of the National Air and Space Museum. Thee can be no doubt that many of today's astronauts owe their careers to him, and many young people who have gone into careers in science probably do as well.