Michael Collins, the pilot of the Apollo 11 mission which landed the first humans on the moon, has died.
Collins died at the age of 90 in Naples, in Florida. His death means Buzz Aldrin is the only surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew. Neil Armstrong, the third member, who was also the first man to walk on the moon, died in 2012.
Collins was born in 1930 in Rome, Italy. His father was serving as the military attaché to the American embassy at the time.
Collins joined the US Air Force in the early 1950s, having graduated from the prestigious West Point Military Academy. He became a test pilot in 1960 and was accepted into astronaut training in 1963.
He flew in space for the first time as part of the Gemini X mission in 1966, becoming the 17th American in space.
He was selected as part of the first mission to land human beings on the moon, along with Armstrong and Aldrin, acting as the command module pilot. This meant he would not land on the moon but would orbit the body while Aldrin and Armstrong explored the surface.
Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, spending nearly 24 hours on the surface, before being reunited with Collins in lunar orbit.
While orbiting the moon, Collins was likely one of the most isolated people in history. While on the far side of the moon, he would have been out of radio contact with Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface, as well as with Mission Control back on Earth. However, Collins said during this experience he felt: ‘awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation’.
Following the lunar mission Collins retired as an astronaut. He served briefly in President Richard Nixon’s cabinet and then became the director of the National Air and Space Museum, before going into business in the 1980s. He also wrote a number of books on space travel, including an autobiography, which is considered by many to be the best autobiographical account written by an astronaut.
His wife, Patricia, with whom he had three children, predeceased him in 2014.
Image by flflflflfl from Pixabay