Michael Collins

“His contribution to this great undertaking will be remembered so long as men wonder and dream and search for the truth on this planet and among the stars.”



Very sad to learn of the passing of yet another one of my childhood hero’s. Michael Collins was the pilot for Gemini 10 and conducted two EVA’s during its almost 3 day flight. However, Michael cemented his place in the greatest engineering feat of mankind by being the command module pilot of Columbia during the Apollo 11 mission. Michael orbited the moon 30 times by himself awaiting the return of the astronauts from the lunar surface. He was dubbed ‘the loneliest person in the world’ during this time where he was a quarter million miles from home completely by himself. This could not have been further from the truth as he later brought to light. He was the key role responsible for the safety and docking of the returning astronauts and tasked with the job of descending to near the lunar surface if they failed to reach the correct altitude to dock as planned. Michael Collins was the lifeline of Apollo 11. He was promised after Apollo 11 in a subsequent mission ‘he would get his boots dirty’ and being the man he is he declined. “As long as Apollo 11 succeeded I will have done my bit for history”. He was also a very critical communicator and professed the importance of STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) but always commented it should be STEEM with the extra ‘E’ being English and the importance of language. Something I can relate to daily as an engineer in the automotive industry. His photograph hangs proudly in Tranquility Base Arcade where he captured the returning Eagle spacecraft and the earth as the backdrop - ‘all human kind in a single photo’ excluding himself. Arguably the greatest photo ever taken with a camera. Godspeed Michael Collins.