Originally published at: RIP Michael Collins, "Third Man" of the first Moon landing | Boing Boing
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I’ll say it again: Collins was the most important member of the Apollo 11 mission.
…never forgotten…
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He might have been the “Third Man” but I will always think of him as the First Wingman. Godspeed.
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Roger that.
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I would love to see that list of contingency plans. Collins mentioned in another article that some of them were “outlandish” and they never actually practiced them.
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He was also the first person who was able to truly get far away from everyone else.
230k+ miles from Earth plus on the other side of the moon from his fellow commuters.
I’m sure some people would love distancing that in today’s cultural climate…
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A genuine hero and yet always modest and funny in the interviews. His autobiography, ‘Carrying the Fire’ is a fantastic read to anyone with even the slightest interest in space.
The Apollo generation is fading away, but we stand in their shadow.
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A feat of social distancing only a few people in history have ever matched.
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Godspeed, Col. Collins.
Their bravery and accomplishments of the thousands of people involved int the project, I don’t think has yet been matched.
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Beat me to it. One of the best books ever written about the US space program and the best book by an astronaut, period. The world lost a fine writer when young Mike Collins decided he wanted to fly jets for a living.
Ave atque vale, Colonel.
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There’s an XKCD comic for every situation, though this one is definitely a bit of a downer.
This is a couple years out of date and I think there are only four Apollo astronauts remaining, all 85 or older. (Edit: plus six more who didn’t land) On the plus side, with the recent SpaceX NASA deal there’s a non-zero chance that there will be another moon landing before the final Apollo astronaut passes on.
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There are four moon walkers still living (Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt) but quite a few other Apollo astronauts are still with us. It’s possible that one or two of the four will live to see another manned lunar landing.
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Just thinking of what the view looking out towards the stars must have been like…just unimaginably FILLED with starlight.
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He was an accomplished Gemini Astronaut as well.
He flew Gemini 10 with John Young who went on to command Apollo 16.
Collins spacewalked over to the dormant Agena at the end of a 50-foot (15 m) tether, making him the first person to meet another spacecraft in orbit
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Markedly contrasts with the virtually zero-distancing once all three astronauts were in the Command Module: Everyone knew — by eye, ear, and nose — what everyone else was doing. I’ll bet Collins enjoyed some of his time alone.
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I read once that since he didn’t get to go to the surface he was offered a spot on the next mission so he could be the third man to walk on the moon. He turned it down as he felt his work had kept him from his family far too much up to then. If true, that’s truly remarkable, giving up a chance to walk on the moon.
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