Collins, Michael (1930-2021), was an astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission, which made the first landing on the moon . Collins piloted the command module, Columbia, as it orbited the moon. His fellow astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Collins was born in Rome, Italy, on Oct. 31, 1930, while his father was stationed there with the United States Army . He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952 and became an Air Force officer. He became an astronaut in 1963. Collins piloted the Gemini 10 flight in 1966. He resigned from the astronaut program in 1969. From 1971 to 1978, Collins was director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum . He later became an aerospace consultant. Collins wrote Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys (1974), a memoir of his experiences as an astronaut; Liftoff: The Story of America’s Adventure in Space (1988); Mission to Mars (1990), a nonfiction book about travel to Mars ; and a children’s book called Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut’s Story (1994). Collins died on Apr. 28, 2021.
Loading the player...Space exploration: Apollo 11
