Tag Archives: Michael Collins

American astronaut Michael Collins of Apollo 11 fame dies at 90

By Rosalba O’Brien

(Reuters) – American astronaut Michael Collins, who stayed behind in the command module of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled to the lunar surface to become the first humans to walk on the moon, died on Wednesday at age 90, his family said.

A statement released by his family said Collins died of cancer.

Often described as the “forgotten” third astronaut on the historic mission, Collins remained alone for more than 21 hours until his two colleagues returned in the lunar module. He lost contact with mission control in Houston each time the spacecraft circled the dark side of the moon.

“Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins,” the mission log said, referring to the biblical figure.

Collins wrote an account of his experiences in his 1974 autobiography, “Carrying the Fire,” but largely shunned publicity.

“I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have,” Collins said in comments released by NASA in 2009.

Collins was born in Rome on Oct. 31, 1930 – the same year as both Armstrong and Aldrin. He was the son of a U.S. Army major general and, like his father, attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1952.

Like many of the first generation of American astronauts, Collins started out as an Air Force test pilot.

In 1963, he was chosen by NASA for its astronaut program, still in its early days but ramping up quickly at the height of the Cold War as the United States sought to push ahead of the Soviet Union and fulfill President John F. Kennedy’s pledge of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

Collins’ first voyage into space came in July 1966 as pilot on Gemini X, part of the missions that prepared NASA’s Apollo program. The Gemini X mission carried out a successful docking with a separate target vehicle.

His second, and final, spaceflight was the historic Apollo 11.

He avoided much of the media fanfare that greeted the astronauts on their return to Earth, and was later often critical of the cult of celebrity.

After a short stint in government, Collins became director of the National Air and Space Museum, stepping down in 1978. He was also the author of a number of space-related books.

His strongest memory from Apollo 11, he said, was looking back at the Earth, which he said seemed “fragile.”

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles, their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced,” he said.

His family’s statement said they know “how lucky Mike felt to live the life he did.”

“Please join us in fondly and joyfully remembering his sharp wit, his quiet sense of purpose, and his wise perspective, gained both from looking back at Earth from the vantage of space and gazing across calm waters from the deck of his fishing boat.”

(Reporting by Rich McKay, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Apollo 11’s astronauts snapped photos for science. Then came MTV

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon, July 20, 1969. The lunar module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are visible in the soil. Neil Armstrong/NASA/Handout via REUTERS

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Jeremy Schultz

(Reuters) – The Apollo 11 astronauts who made mankind’s first visit to the moon 50 years ago were trained in how to take pictures for science. Back on Earth, some of those photos became pop culture touchstones.

People collected and shared prints of the Apollo 11 landing and moonwalk, which also became the basis for artist Andy Warhol’s colored prints “Moonwalk” and for MTV’s logo when the music channel launched in 1981.

The Apollo 11 astronauts – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins – were not trained in how to take photographs of each other but those were the ones that became most popular, said Jennifer Levasseur, curator of the space history department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

“The photographs of people are what make it real for everybody back on Earth. We can sort of understand it because we can put ourselves in their place,” Levasseur said.

Armstrong had the instinct to photograph Aldrin standing alone and told him – by radio transmission – to turn around for a picture, Levasseur said.

Another famous photo of Aldrin, showing him standing by an American flag, took more planning, she said. MTV used that picture to market itself, replacing the flag with its own logo.

Still photography from the Apollo 11 moonwalk was captured on cameras specially built by the Swedish company Hasselblad to mount on an astronaut’s chest. All they had to do was point their body in the right direction, adjust the settings if necessary and pull a trigger.

All three Apollo 11 crew members were encouraged to take the bulky cameras on family vacations to familiarize themselves with their unusual operation, according to a NASA website.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 Mission Commander, standing next to the Lunar Module "Eagle" on the moon July 20, 1969. REUTERS/Buzz Aldrin-NASA/Handout

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 Mission Commander, standing next to the Lunar Module “Eagle” on the moon July 20, 1969. REUTERS/Buzz Aldrin-NASA/Handout

Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, and Aldrin had one camera for their moonwalk and they had planned to share it. However, Armstrong had the camera for almost the entire two-and-a-half-hour landing. As a result, nearly all the still photographs showing an astronaut on the moon are of Aldrin, the website says.

NASA noticed this embarrassing omission as the agency struggled to find a photo of the first man to walk on the moon actually walking on the moon.

Its staff, however, found it almost impossible to tell Aldrin and Armstrong apart. A personalized armband was added to every spacesuit after Apollo 11, the NASA website says.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Paul Tait)