Michael Collins (astronaut)

• 1. Born In Rome

  ›

  Michael Collins entered the world on the 31st of October 1930, inside a hospital in Rome, Italy. His father James Lawton Collins served as the United States military attaché to that country at the time. This assignment placed the young boy far from his family's Irish roots and American home base. He grew up moving between multiple locations including Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, and various military posts across the United States. The constant relocation shaped a childhood defined by global exposure rather than a single hometown. He attended schools in San Juan, Washington D.C., and eventually graduated from St. Albans School in 1948. His mother Virginia Stewart hoped he would enter the diplomatic service like her own British heritage might suggest. Collins chose instead to follow his father, brother, uncle, and cousin into the armed services. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. His older brother had graduated there in 1939 while their father finished in 1907. Collins completed his studies on the 3rd of June 1952, ranking 185th out of 527 cadets in his class. Future astronaut Ed White sat among his classmates during those four years.

• 2. Test Pilot Training

  ›

  Collins began basic flight training in August 1952 at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. He flew T-6 Texan aircraft before moving to Texas for instrument and formation flying lessons. Advanced jet training took place at James Connally Air Force Base in Waco. He earned his wings upon completing that course and was selected for day-fighter training at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The training proved dangerous with eleven fatalities occurring during the twenty-two weeks he spent there. He flew F-86 Sabre fighters and won first prize in a 1956 gunnery competition. A NATO exercise later forced him to eject from an F-86 near Chaumont-Semoutiers after cockpit fire started. He met Patricia Mary Finnegan in an officers' mess while stationed in France. They married in 1957 despite religious differences between his Episcopalian background and her Catholic family. Collins converted to Catholicism before their wedding. He accumulated over 1,500 flying hours which qualified him for the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. His application succeeded on the 29th of August 1960, placing him in Class 60C alongside future astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Irwin. He quit smoking in 1962 after suffering a severe hangover and described the withdrawal as the worst four hours of his life.

• 3. Gemini Spacewalks

  ›

  Collins received his first crew assignment in late June 1965 as backup pilot for Gemini 7. He became the first of fourteen astronauts to receive a specific flight role. The mission plan called for two extravehicular activities or spacewalks during the upcoming Gemini 10 flight. Training involved underwater exercises that were skipped due to time constraints. Instead he practiced using a nitrogen gun on a slippery metal table about the size of a boxing ring. The actual launch occurred from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral on the 18th of July 1966. Collins performed his first spacewalk by standing up through the hatch with an ultraviolet camera. He took photos of the Milky Way while his eyes watered from lithium hydroxide contamination inside the suit. His second spacewalk required him to retrieve equipment from the Agena spacecraft. He found it took much longer than expected to complete tasks outside the capsule. Young had to pull him back inside using the umbilical cord after Collins struggled to reenter. This made him the first person to perform two spacewalks within a single mission. The pair splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on July 21 after completing nearly all major objectives.

• 4. Apollo Command Module

  ›

  Collins served as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11 while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. He orbited the lunar surface thirty times alone aboard the Columbia spacecraft. Mission Control radioed that the landing module might have touched down four miles off target. Collins searched for the Eagle but could not find it during his first orbits over the far side. He managed technical issues including coolant temperature problems without manual intervention. During forty-eight minutes of each orbit he lost contact with Earth yet felt no fear or loneliness. He described the experience as one of awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, and confidence. Before the return trip he wrote a message inside the lower equipment bay of the command module. The inscription read Spacecraft 107 , alias Apollo 11 , alias Columbia. The best ship to come down the line. God Bless Her. Michael Collins, CMP. He worried about Armstrong and Aldrins safety throughout their descent. He also feared becoming a marked man if they died on the lunar surface leaving him as the sole survivor. The crew splashed down east of Wake Island on July 24 after eight days in space. They spent twenty-one days in quarantine before returning home.

• 5. Museum Directorship

  ›

  NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine suggested Collins take a job at the Department of State. He accepted the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs on the 15th of December 1969. The role involved managing relations with the public rather than acting as department spokesperson. Collins led a staff of 115 people with a budget of $2.5 million. He left that post officially announced on the 22nd of February 1971 to become Director of the National Air and Space Museum. Congress had authorized a museum building in 1946 but never provided funding until 1972. Senator Barry Goldwater gave an impassioned speech in the Senate on the 19th of May 1970 demanding appropriations. Congress approved $13 million plus contract authority of $27 million on the 10th of August 1972. Ground broke on the 20th of November 1972 for construction designed by architect Gyo Obata. The building opened three days ahead of schedule on the 1st of July 1976. Over one million visitors passed through its doors in the first month alone. Collins held the directorship until 1978 when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

• 6. Civilian Career And Writing

  ›

  Collins completed Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1974. He became vice president of LTV Aerospace in Arlington County, Virginia, in 1980. He resigned from that position in 1985 to start his own consulting firm named Michael Collins Associates. His autobiography Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys appeared in 1974. New York Times writer John Wilford called it generally regarded as the best account of what it is like to be an astronaut. He also wrote Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space in 1988 and Mission to Mars in 1990. A children's book titled Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places was revised and re-released in 1994. Collins painted watercolors mostly depicting the Florida Everglades or aircraft he flew. He rarely signed his paintings initially to avoid price increases due to his autograph. He lived with his wife Pat in Marco Island, Florida, and Avon, North Carolina until her death in April 2014. He died of cancer at his home in Naples, Florida, on the 28th of April 2021, at age 90.