- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Mike
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- Michael Collins (October 31, 1930 - April 28, 2021) was an American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crew-mates, 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bonitao
- SpousePat Collins(April 28, 1957 - April 9, 2014) (her death, 3 children)
- Crew member on Gemini 10 (1966) and Apollo 11 (1969) missions.
- He was the command module pilot for Apollo 11, the mission that landed the first men on the moon (he stayed in orbit around the moon during the landing). He was the first director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
- The song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" (1970) by the British rock band Jethro Tull was dedicated to him, and talked about what he missed out on through staying on the shuttle during the moon-landing.
- He received his Bachelor of Science degree in military science from the United States Military Academy (West Point) (1952). He became a fighter pilot, and served as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
- Two flights for the American space program. Once on the first manned lunar expedition Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and once on Gemini 10 with John Young. On the historic Apollo 11 mission, the lunar module was Eagle and the command module was Columbia.
- I knew I was alone in a way that no Earthling has ever been before. [on his solo flight in the Apollo 11 command module while astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface, quoted in Time magazine, 11 December 1972]
- [November 9, 1969] I think a future flight should include a poet, a priest and a philosopher... we might get a much better idea of what we saw.
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