To go places and do things that have never been done before – that’s
what living is all about.
– Michael Collins.
Michael Collins, the former NASA astronaut who was the command module pilot and the third man of the famous Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on moon, has died aged 90 after battling cancer.
Following his demise, the acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk in a statement wrote; “Today the nation lost a true pioneer and lifelong advocate for exploration in astronaut Michael Collins. As pilot of the Apollo 11 command module – some called him the loneliest man in history – while his colleagues walked on the Moon for the first time, he helped our nation achieve a defining milestone. He also distinguished himself in the Gemini Program and as an Air Force pilot.”
And the public statement made by his family read; “We will miss him terribly. Yet we also know how lucky Mike felt to have lived the life he did. We will honor his wish for us to celebrate, not mourn, that life.”
The Unsung Hero
Collins was that one astronaut the general public forgot amidst the glory and attention they gave to the two men (Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin) who actually stepped foot on the moon. Yet, Collins’ contribution to the mission was as important as anyone’s. While the two astronauts were on the moon, Collins orbited the moon once every 47 minutes for 21 hours and became the second human, after John Young, to visit the dark side of the moon all alone!
Collins later in his 1974 bestseller memoir, “Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys,” wrote how those moments really felt like; “I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon. I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life, I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.”
During the training for Apollo 11 mission, Collins was given the harder job of handling different complicated situations alone because his role for the mission demanded it. Deke Slayton, the director of flight crew operations, said; “His training pretty much required him to be alone. If something went wrong, he didn’t have anybody else to blame or complain to.”
Also, the role was definitely not for the faint-hearted because he was even trained to leave behind his crewmates if they failed to rise from the surface, or crash back into it.
Before the Apollo mission, back in 1966, Collins was part of NASA’s Gemini Program where he became only the fourth person to do a spacewalk and the first to meet another spacecraft in orbit. Collins retired from NASA in 1970 after a successful and eventful career. He served as director of Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 1971 to 1978. And remained an inspiration to young talents and future astronauts.
Though he left us now, he will live forever through his works.
It is human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice really – it’s an imperative.
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