To be chosen to go to the Moon and to orbit three times – alone – to watch it, while two others take the glory of being the first to set their feet on the ground of our natural satellite. This was the fate of Michael Collins, who died of cancer today at the age of 90, commander of Columbia, the Apollo 11 pilot module, while Eagle, the lunar module, descended with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin towards the landing point in the Sea of Tranquility (How did man land on the Moon? All stages).
The forgotten astronaut
Collins was one of the “forgotten astronauts”, like him also in the other Apollo missions that landed on the moon there was someone who stood by and watched. He joined NASA in 1963 and participated in the Gemini program: he flew in fact for three days in July 1966 with Gemini 10 together with John Young, who was the first astronaut of the Shuttle as well as on the Moon with Apollo 16. Collins, however, after Apollo 11 never went into orbit again. But he has a memory: he was the first ever to take two spacewalks in flight with Gemini 10. In 1970 he left NASA, worked for the government in the State Department, until 1978 he was the director of the National Aviation and Space Museum, then worked at the Smithsonian.
Born in Rome
He was born in Rome on October 31, 1930, in via Tevere 16, where there is a commemorative plaque placed three months after the Apollo 11 mission. His father was in Italy as a military attaché at the American embassy.
April 28, 2021 (change April 28, 2021 | 19:26)
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