Michael Collins, the command module pilot of Apollo 11, died at the age of 90. NASA marked his passing with a short film, Remembering Michael Collins, 1930–2021 — pilot, spacewalker, explorer.
Gemini 10: a record and two spacewalks
Collins was one of the third group of astronauts NASA named, in October 1963. His first flight came in 1966, as pilot of the three-day Gemini 10 mission. On it he set a world altitude record and became only the third American to walk in space, making two spacewalks.
Project Gemini was the bridge between Mercury and Apollo. Its job was to work out the technical details the Moon landings would need — bringing two spacecraft together in Earth orbit, and keeping two people in orbit for 14 days. Gemini’s spacewalks were needed to prove that all would go well on the surface of the Moon.
Apollo 11: in lunar orbit
His second flight was the one history remembers. In July 1969, Collins flew as command module pilot of Apollo 11 aboard Columbia. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon, Collins remained in lunar orbit.
Radio exchanges from the mission capture the moment. As the moonwalk went on, Mission Control told Collins it was going beautifully — and joked that he was about the only person anywhere who couldn’t watch it on television. Collins answered that he didn’t mind a bit.
Looking ahead
In the film, Collins predicts that 50 or 60 years from now, people would be doing remarkable things no one could foresee — because human curiosity endures. People want to understand the universe, he says, how it works and how it shapes their lives.
Sources
Based on "NASA Remembers Apollo Astronaut Michael Collins," a NASA video and its description; a work of the United States government in the public domain, with Collins’s recorded remarks rewritten in hubnx’s own words. Cover image from the same NASA video.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from images.nasa.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
