Legendary astronaut Michael Collins dies at 90 years old

(Self portrait during the Apollo 11 mission / NASA)

astronaut Michael Collins died at the age of 90. He was a member of the Apollo 11 crew, which put the first people on the moon.

Collins himself, unlike Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, did not step on the moon, but worked in the command module.

Collins was born in 1930 in Rome and for the first two decades he moved several times due to the change of duty of his father.

In 1952, he graduated from the United States Military Academy and became a military fighter pilot. In 1963, Collins was assigned to NASA's Third Astronaut Squad.

Michael Collins first flew into space with John Young on the Gemini 10 in July 1966.

During the three-day flight, astronauts twice approached (and docked in one of the cases) with the target ships Agena and conducted a number of experiments.

Collins became the first person in history to complete two spacewalks in one flight.

On his second Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, Collins was piloting a command module in orbit around the moon when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first landed on our natural satellite.

During a one-day stay in the orbit of the moon, he made a number of observations of the landing site of the astronauts.

After flying to the moon, Collins was appointed assistant secretary of state for public affairs, but did not last long in that position, and in 1971 became director of the National Air and Space Museum.

In 1978 he was appointed Deputy Scientific Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, he wrote a number of books on astronautics, and was also fond of watercolors.

Sources:

• NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/28/509599284/forgotten-astronaut-michael-collins-dies
• Space.com: https://www.space.com/michael-collins-apollo-11-astronaut-dies-at-90