Michael Collins
1930 - 2021
A belated and melancholy Happy Trails to astronaut Michael Collins who died last month at the age of 90. As a member of the historic Apollo 11 crew, Collins flew the command module Columbia solo around the moon while crew mates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the lunar module Eagle to the lunar surface and became the first humans to walk on the moon. When Collins flew Columbia around the back side of the moon, he lost all contact with both Armstrong and Aldrin and with Mission Control on Earth. The official mission log of Apollo 11 noted that "Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins."
Collins was a graduate of West Point, and like most of the early generations of American astronauts, he served as a test pilot in the US Air Force. He was chosen to be a Project Gemini astronaut, and made his first trip into space aboard Gemini 10 along with John Young. His mission aboard Apollo 11 was his second and last flight into outer space.
Space travel barely makes the television news anymore, but if you were alive in the Summer of 1969, you will never forget the excitement surrounding the truly heroic events that surrounded Apollo 11 and man's first landing upon the surface of the moon.
RIP Mike Collins.
The Crew of Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
Aldrin is the only one still with us
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