Michael Collins (astronaut)

Michael Collins (October 31, 1930 – April 28, 2021) was an Italian-born American <a href="/facts/Astronaut/HB1bd6Lz">astronaut</a> who flew the <a href="/facts/Apollo_11/BdUKVnQP">Apollo 11</a> <a href="/facts/Command_module_Columbia/1xL090h3">command module Columbia</a> around the <a href="/facts/Moon/zKHqEMPb">Moon</a> in 1969 while his crewmates, <a href="/facts/Neil_Armstrong/3aoQV60l">Neil Armstrong</a> and <a href="/facts/Buzz_Aldrin/meuu82u7">Buzz Aldrin</a>, made the first crewed landing on the <a href="/facts/Moon%2527s_surface/PKERJvlP">surface</a>. He was also a <a href="/facts/Test_pilot/RuGs146q">test pilot</a> and <a href="/facts/Major_general_(United_States)/mhMeTCFj">major general</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_States_Air_Force_Reserve/ntaKUU2X">U.S. Air Force Reserve</a>.
Born in <a href="/facts/Rome/bh1Ttx3T">Rome</a>, Italy, where his father was serving as the U.S. <a href="/facts/Military_attach%25C3%25A9/qlaEdntl">military attaché</a>, Collins graduated in the Class of 1952 from the <a href="/facts/United_States_Military_Academy/px9g8rhT">United States Military Academy</a>. He followed his father, brother, uncle, and cousin into the military. He joined the <a href="/facts/United_States_Air_Force/7MxWBYlc">United States Air Force</a>, and flew <a href="/facts/North_American_F-86_Sabre/U2RSfjqu">F-86 Sabre</a> fighters at <a href="/facts/Chambley-Bussi%25C3%25A8res_Air_Base/9dpB6oas">Chambley-Bussières Air Base</a>, France. He was accepted into the <a href="/facts/U.S._Air_Force_Test_Pilot_School/11vNWoyU">U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School</a> at <a href="/facts/Edwards_Air_Force_Base/MwAW8n6a">Edwards Air Force Base</a> in 1960, also graduating from the <a href="/facts/Aerospace_Research_Pilot_School/11vNWoyU">Aerospace Research Pilot School</a> (Class III).
Selected as part of <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a>'s <a href="/facts/Astronaut_Group_3/vmIbq4Q0">third group of 14 astronauts</a> in 1963, Collins flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was on <a href="/facts/Gemini_10/zR5Vaknb">Gemini 10</a> in 1966, in which he and Command Pilot <a href="/facts/John_Young_(astronaut)/gD9fX5yr">John Young</a> performed <a href="/facts/Orbital_rendezvous/8KlcQyyf">orbital rendezvous</a> with two spacecraft and undertook two <a href="/facts/Extravehicular_activity/udj91j1E">extravehicular activities</a> (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). On the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, he became one of <a href="/facts/List_of_Apollo_astronauts/nXReWvNK">24 people to fly to the Moon</a>, which he orbited thirty times. He was <a href="/facts/List_of_spacewalkers/Graefy6F">the fourth person</a> (and third American) to perform a <a href="/facts/Extravehicular_activity/udj91j1E">spacewalk</a>, the first person to have performed more than one spacewalk, and, after Young, who flew the command module on <a href="/facts/Apollo_10/SYbSPPHM">Apollo 10</a>, the second person to orbit the Moon alone.
After retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins took a job in the <a href="/facts/United_States_Department_of_State/WsB5FMBT">Department of State</a> as <a href="/facts/Assistant_Secretary_of_State_for_Public_Affairs/lCUSuqVr">Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs</a>. A year later, he became the director of the <a href="/facts/National_Air_and_Space_Museum/CSDNqoSA">National Air and Space Museum</a>, and held this position until 1978, when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the <a href="/facts/Smithsonian_Institution/pqC74ta9">Smithsonian Institution</a>. In 1980, he took a job as vice president of <a href="/facts/LTV_Aerospace/91xgq7xu">LTV Aerospace</a>. He resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Along with his Apollo 11 crewmates, Collins was awarded the <a href="/facts/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom/wNtowHA6">Presidential Medal of Freedom</a> in 1969 and the <a href="/facts/Congressional_Gold_Medal/At3EBoYz">Congressional Gold Medal</a> in 2011.

Michael Collins (astronaut) open-in-new

Michael Collins (astronaut)