Selected as part ofNASA'sthird group of 14 astronauts in 1963, Collins flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was onGemini 10 in 1966, in which he and Command PilotJohn Young performedorbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and undertook twoextravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). On the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, he became one of24 people to fly to the Moon, which he orbited thirty times. He wasthe fourth person (and third American) to perform aspacewalk, the first person to have performed more than one spacewalk, and, after Young, who flew the command module onApollo 10, the second person to orbit the Moon alone.
Collins' decision to join theUnited States Air Force (USAF) was motivated by both the wonder of what the next fifty years might bring inaeronautics, and to avoid accusations ofnepotism had he joined the Army — where his brother was already acolonel, his father had reached the rank ofmajor general and his uncle,GeneralJ. Lawton Collins (1896–1987), was theChief of Staff of the United States Army.[16] TheAir Force Academy, still under construction, would not graduate its first class for several years. In the interim, graduates of the Military Academy were eligible for Air Force commissions.[17] Promotion was slower in the Air Force than in the Army, due to the large number of young officers who had been commissioned and promoted during World War II.[16]
Collins met his future wife, Patricia Mary Finnegan fromBoston, Massachusetts, in anofficers' mess. A graduate ofEmmanuel College, where she majored in English, she was a social worker, dealing mainly with single mothers. To see more of the world, she was working for the Air Force service club. After getting engaged, they had to overcome a difference in religion. Collins was raised nominallyEpiscopalian, while Finnegan came from a staunchlyRoman Catholic family. Collins converted to Catholicism before their marriage. After seeking permission to marry from Finnegan's father, and delaying their wedding when Collins was redeployed toWest Germany during the1956 Hungarian Revolution, they married in 1957.[20] They had a daughter, actressKate Collins, in 1959,[14] a second daughter, Ann, in 1961 and a son, Michael, in 1963.[21]
After Collins returned to the United States in late 1957, he attended an aircraft maintenance officer course atChanute Air Force Base,Illinois. He would later describe this school as "dismal" in his autobiography; he found the classwork boring, flying time scarce, and the equipment outdated. Upon completing the course, he commanded a Mobile Training Detachment (MTD) and traveled to air bases around the world.[22] The detachment trained mechanics on the servicing of new aircraft, and pilots how to fly them. He later became the first commander of a Field Training Detachment (FTD 523) back at Nellis AFB, which was a similar kind of unit, except that the students traveled to him.[23]
The inspiration for Collins in his decision to become a NASA astronaut was theMercury Atlas 6 flight ofJohn Glenn on February 20, 1962, and the thought of being able to circle the Earth in 90 minutes. Collins applied for the second group of astronauts that year. To raise the numbers of Air Force pilots selected, the Air Force sent their best applicants to a "charm school". Medical and psychiatric examinations atBrooks Air Force Base, Texas, and interviews at theManned Spacecraft Center (MSC) inHouston followed. In mid-September, he found out he had not been accepted. It was a blow even though he did not expect to be selected. Collins rated thesecond group of nine as better than theMercury Seven who preceded them, or the five groups that followed, including his own.[27]
That year the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School became the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS),[28] as the Air Force tried to enter into space research through theX-15 andX-20 programs. Collins applied for a new postgraduate course offered into the basics of spaceflight. He was accepted into the third class on October 22, 1962. Other students in his eleven-member class included three future astronauts:Charles Bassett,Edward Givens andJoe Engle.[29] Along with classwork, they also flew up to about 90,000 feet (27,000 m) inF-104 Starfighters. As they passed through the top of their arc, they would experience a brief period ofweightlessness. On finishing this course he returned to fighter operations in May 1963.[30]
At the start of June, NASA once again called for astronaut applications. Collins went through the same process as with his first application, though he did not take the psychiatric evaluation. He was atRandolph Air Force Base, Texas, on October 14 whenDeke Slayton, theChief of the Astronaut Office at NASA, called and asked if he was still interested in becoming an astronaut.Charles Bassett was also accepted.[31] By this time Collins had flown over 3,000 hours, of which 2,700 were in jet aircraft.[32]
Compared with the first two groups of astronauts, thethird group of fourteen astronauts, which included Collins, was younger, with an average age of 31—the first two groups had an average age of 34.5 and 32.5 at their time of selection—and was better educated, with an average of 5.6 years of tertiary education; but they had fewer flying hours—2,300 on average compared with 3,500 and 2,800 for the first two groups, and only eight of the fourteen were test pilots. Of the thirty astronauts selected in the first three groups, only Collins and his third group colleagueWilliam Anders were born outside the United States,[33][34] and Collins was the only one with an older brother; all the rest were the eldest or only sons in their families.[35] Training began with a 240-hour course on the basics of spaceflight. Fifty-eight hours of this was devoted to geology, something Collins did not readily understand and in which he never became very interested.[36] At the end,Alan Shepard, theChief of the Astronaut Office, asked the fourteen to rank their fellow astronauts in the order they would want to fly with them in space. Collins pickedDavid Scott in the number one position.[37]
After this basic training, the third group was assigned specializations. Collins received his first choice: pressure suits andextravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks).[38] His job was to monitor development and act as a liaison between the Astronaut Office and contractors.[39] He was disturbed by the secretive planning of Ed White's EVA onGemini 4, because he was not involved despite being the person with the greatest knowledge of the subject.[40]
In late June 1965, Collins received his first crew assignment: the backup pilot forGemini 7,[41] with hisWest Point classmate Ed White named as the backup mission commander. Collins was the first of the fourteen to receive a crew assignment,[42] but the first to fly was Scott onGemini 8,[43] andCharles Bassett was assigned toGemini 9.[44] Under the system of crew rotation established by Slayton, being on the backup crew of Gemini7 set Collins up to pilotGemini 10.[45] Gemini7 was commanded by Borman, whom Collins knew well from their days at Edwards, withJim Lovell as the pilot. Collins made a point of providing a daily briefing to their wives, Susan Borman and Marilyn Lovell, on the progress of the two-week Gemini7 mission.[46]
After the successful completion of Gemini7 on January 24, 1966, Collins was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10, but withJohn Young as mission commander, as White moved on to theApollo program.[44][47] Jim Lovell andBuzz Aldrin were designated as the backup commander and pilot respectively.[48] The arrangements were disturbed on February 28 by the deaths of the Gemini9 crew,Charles Bassett andElliot See, in the1966 NASA T-38 crash. They were replaced on Gemini9 by their backups, Stafford andGene Cernan. Cernan was the second of the fourteen to fly in space. Lovell and Aldrin became their backups, andAlan Bean andC.C. Williams took their place as the Gemini 10 backup crew.[49] Collins would be the seventeenth American, and third member of his group, to fly in space.[50]
Training for Gemini 10 was interrupted in March when Slayton diverted Young, Collins and Williams to represent their respective services on a panel to selectanother group of astronauts, along with himself, Shepard, spacecraft designerMax Faget, and astronaut training officerWarren J. North. Young protested the loss of a week's training to no avail. Applying strict criteria for age, flying experience and education reduced the number of applicants to 35. The panel interviewed each for an hour, and rated nineteen as qualified. Collins was surprised when Slayton elected to take them all. Slayton later admitted that he too had doubts; he already had enough astronauts forProject Apollo as far as the first Moon landing, but post-Apollo plans were for up to 30 missions. Such a large intake therefore seemed prudent. Ten of the nineteen had test pilot experience, and seven were graduates of the ARPS.[51][52][53]
John Young (left) and Michael Collins aboard the recovery ship
Fifteen scientific experiments were carried onGemini 10—more than any other Gemini mission except the two-week-long Gemini 7.[54] After Gemini 9's EVA ran into problems, the remaining Gemini objectives had to be completed on the last three flights. While the overall number of objectives increased, the difficulty of Collins' EVA was scaled significantly back. There was no backpack or astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU), as there had been on Gemini 8.[47]
Their three-day mission called for them to rendezvous with twoAgena Target Vehicles, undertake two EVAs, and perform 15 different experiments. The training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies oforbital rendezvous, controlling the Agena and, for Collins, the EVA. For what was to be the fourth ever EVA, underwater training was not performed, mostly because Collins did not have the time. To train to use the nitrogen gun he would use for propulsion, a smooth metal surface about the size of a boxing ring was set up. He would stand on a circular pad that used gas jets to raise itself off the surface. Using the nitrogen gun he would practice propelling himself across the "slippery table".[55]
Gemini 10 lifted off fromLaunch Complex 19 atCape Canaveral at 17:20 local time on July 18, 1966. Upon reaching orbit, it was about 860 nautical miles (1,600 km) behind the Agena target vehicle, which had been launched 100 minutes earlier. A rendezvous was achieved on Gemini 10's fourth orbit at 10:43, followed by docking at 11:13.[56][57] The mission plan called for multiple dockings with the Agena target, but an error by Collins in using thesextant caused them to burn valuable propellant, resulting in Mission Control calling off this objective to conserve propellant.[58] Once docked, the Agena 10 propulsion system was activated to boost the astronauts to a new altitude record, 475 miles (764 km) above the Earth, breaking the previous record of 295 miles (475 km) set byVoskhod 2.[59]
A second burn of the Agena 10 engine at 03:58 on July 19 put them into the same orbit as Agena8, which had been launched for the Gemini8 mission on March 16. For his first EVA Collins did not leave the Gemini capsule, but stood up through the hatch with an ultraviolet camera.[56] After he took the ultraviolet photos, Collins took photos of a plate they brought with them. They were used to compare photos taken in space with those taken in a laboratory.[60] In his biography he said he felt at that moment like aRoman god riding the skies in his chariot.[61]
The EVA started on the dark side of the Earth so Collins could take photos of theMilky Way. Collins' and Young's eyes began to water, forcing an early end to the EVA.[62]Lithium hydroxide, which was normally used to remove exhaledcarbon dioxide from the cabin, had accidentally been fed into the astronauts' space suits. The compressor causing the problem was switched off,[63] and a high oxygen flow was used to purge the environmental control system.[56]
Prior to Collins' second EVA, the Agena 10 spacecraft was jettisoned. Young positioned the capsule close enough to Agena8 for Collins to get to it while attached to his 49-foot (15 m) umbilical.[64] Collins became thefirst person to perform two spacewalks in the same mission.[65][66] He found it took much longer to complete tasks than he expected, something Cernan also experienced during his spacewalk on Gemini 9. He removed amicrometeorite experiment from the exterior of the spacecraft, and configured his nitrogen maneuvering thruster. Collins had difficulty reentering the spacecraft, and needed Young to pull him back in with the umbilical.[64]
The duo activated theretrorockets on their 43rd orbit, and they splashed down in the Atlantic at 16:06 on July 21, 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) from the recovery vessel, theamphibious assault shipUSS Guadalcanal, and were picked up by helicopter.[64] Collins and Young completed nearly all the major objectives of the flight.[67] The docking practice and the landmark measurement experiment were cancelled in order to conserve propellant, and the micrometeorite collector was lost when it drifted out of the spacecraft.[56]
Shortly after Gemini 10, Collins was assigned to the backup crew for the second crewed Apollo flight, with Borman ascommander (CDR), Stafford ascommand module pilot (CMP), and Collins aslunar module pilot (LMP). Along with learning the newApollo command and service module (CSM) and theApollo Lunar Module (LM), Collins received helicopter training, as these were thought to be the best way to simulate the landing approach of the LM. After the completion ofProject Gemini, it was decided to cancel the Apollo2 flight, since it would just repeat theApollo 1 flight. Stafford was given his own crew, and Anders was assigned to Borman's crew. Slayton had decided an Apollo mission commander should be an experienced astronaut who had already flown a mission, and that on flights with a LM, the CMP should also have some spaceflight experience, something Anders did not yet have, since the CMP would have to fly the CM alone. Collins was therefore moved to the CMP position on the Apollo9 prime crew, and Anders became the LMP.[68] The practice became that the CMP would be the next most senior member of the crew, and that they would go on to command later Apollo flights.[69]
Staff meetings were always held on Fridays in the Astronaut Office, and it was here that Collins found himself on January 27, 1967. Don Gregory was running the meeting in the absence of Shepard and so it was he who answered the red phone to be informed there had been a fire in the Apollo 1 CM, and that the three astronauts,Gus Grissom,Ed White andRoger Chaffee were dead. When the enormity of the situation was ascertained, it fell on Collins to go to the Chaffee household to inform Martha Chaffee that her husband had died. The Astronaut Office had learned to be proactive in informing astronauts' families of a death quickly, because of the death ofTheodore Freeman in an aircraft crash in 1964, when a newspaper reporter was the first to his house.[70]
Collins and Scott were sent by NASA to theParis Air Show in May 1967. There they metcosmonautsPavel Belyayev andKonstantin Feoktistov, with whom they drank vodka on the Soviets'Tupolev Tu-134. Collins found it interesting that some cosmonauts were doing helicopter training like their American counterparts, and Belyayev said he hoped to make acircumlunar flight soon. The astronauts' wives had accompanied them on the trip, and Collins and his wife Pat were compelled by NASA and their friends to travel toMetz, where they had been married ten years before. There, they found a third wedding ceremony had been arranged for them (ten years previously they had already had civil and religious ceremonies), so they could renew their vows.[71]
During 1968, Collins noticed his legs were not working as they should, first duringhandball games, then as he walked down stairs. His knee would almost give way, and his left leg had unusual sensations when in hot and cold water. Reluctantly he sought medical advice and the diagnosis was a cervicaldisc herniation, requiring twovertebrae to befused.[72] The surgery was performed atWilford Hall Hospital atLackland Air Force Base, Texas. The planned recuperation time was three to six months.[73] Collins spent three months in a neck brace. As a result, he was removed from the prime crew ofApollo 9 and his backup, Jim Lovell, replaced him as CMP. When theApollo 8 mission was changed from a CSM/LM mission in highEarth orbit to a CSM-only flight around the Moon, both prime and backup crews for Apollo8 and9 swapped places.[74]
Having trained for the flight, Collins was made acapsule communicator (CAPCOM), an astronaut stationed atMission Control responsible for communicating directly with the crew during a mission.[75] As part of the Green Team, he covered the launch phase up totranslunar injection, the rocket burn that sent Apollo8 to the Moon.[76] The successful completion of the first crewed circumlunar flight was followed by the announcement of the Apollo 11 crew of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. At that time, in January 1969, it was uncertain this would be the lunar landing mission; this depended on the success of Apollo9 andApollo 10 testing the LM.[77]
As CMP, Collins' training was completely different from the LM and lunar EVA, and was sometimes done without Armstrong or Aldrin being present. Along with simulators, there were measurements for pressure suits, centrifuge training to simulate the reentry, and practicing docking with a huge rig atNASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. Since he would be the active participant in the rendezvous with the LM, Collins compiled a book[78] of 18 different rendezvous schemes for various scenarios including ones where the LM did not land, or it launched too early or too late. This book ran for 117 pages.[78]
Themission patch of Apollo 11 was the creation of Collins. Jim Lovell, the backup commander, mentioned the idea of eagles, a symbol of the United States. Collins liked the idea and found a painting by artistWalter A. Weber in aNational Geographic Society book,Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America,[79] traced it and added the lunar surface below and Earth in the background. The idea of an olive branch, a symbol of peace, came from a computer expert at the simulators. The call signColumbia for the CSM came fromJulian Scheer, the NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. He mentioned the idea to Collins in a conversation and Collins could not think of anything better.[80][81]
During the training for Apollo 11, Slayton offered to get Collins back into the crew sequence after the flight. Collins would most likely have been the backup commander ofApollo 14, followed by commander ofApollo 17, but he told Slayton he did not want to travel to space again if Apollo 11 was successful. The difficult schedule of an astronaut strained his family life. He wanted to help achieve John F. Kennedy's goal of landing on the Moon within the decade and had no interest in further exploration of the Moon once the goal was achieved. The assignment was given to Cernan.[69][82][83]
Collins in the command module simulator
An estimated one million spectators watched the launch of Apollo 11 from the highways and beaches in the vicinity of the launch site. The launch was televised live in 33 countries, with an estimated 25 million viewers in the United States alone. Millions more listened to radio broadcasts.[84][85] Propelled by a giantSaturn V rocket, Apollo 11 lifted off fromLaunch Complex 39A at theKennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at 13:32UTC (09:32EDT),[86] and entered Earth orbit twelve minutes later. After one and a half orbits, theS-IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon. About 30 minutes later, Collins performed thetransposition, docking, and extraction maneuver. This involved separatingColumbia from the spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking with theLunar ModuleEagle. After it was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew on a trajectory past it.[87]
On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enterlunar orbit.[87] In the thirty orbits that followed,[88] the crew saw passing views of their landing site in the southernSea of Tranquillity about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of the craterSabine D.[89] At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong enteredEagle and began the final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00Eagle separated fromColumbia.[87] Collins, alone aboardColumbia, inspectedEagle as it rotated before him to ensure the craft was not damaged and that the landing gear had correctly deployed before heading for the surface.[90][91]
Columbia in lunar orbit and piloted by Collins alone, photographed fromEagle
During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although Mission Control speculated in that day'slog that "not sinceAdam has any human known such solitude",[92] Collins felt very much a part of the mission. In his autobiography he wrote "this venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two". In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio contact with the Earth whileColumbia passed round the far side of the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or loneliness, but rather "awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".[93]
One of Collins' first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the ground. To give Collins an idea where to look, Mission Control radioed that they believed the lunar module landed about four miles off target. Each time he passed over the suspected landing site, he tried in vain to find the lunar module. On his first two orbits on the far side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by thefuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return.[94]Columbia orbited the Moon thirty times.[95]
Just before he reached the far side on the third orbit, Mission Control informed Collins there was a problem with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts ofColumbia might freeze. Mission Control advised him to assume manual control and implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure 17. Instead, Collins flicked the switch on the offending system from automatic to manual and back to automatic again, and carried on with normal housekeeping chores, while keeping an eye on the temperature. WhenColumbia came back around to the near side of the Moon again, he was able to report that the problem had been resolved. For the next couple of orbits, he described his time on the far side of the Moon as "relaxing". After Aldrin and Armstrong completed their EVA, Collins slept so he could be rested for the rendezvous. While the flight plan called forEagle to meet up withColumbia, Collins was prepared for certain contingencies in which he would flyColumbia down to meetEagle.[96] After spending so much time with the CSM, he felt compelled to leave his mark on it, so during the second night following their return from the Moon, he went to the lower equipment bay of the CM and wrote:
"Spacecraft 107 – alias Apollo 11 – aliasColumbia. The best ship to come down the line. God Bless Her. Michael Collins, CMP"[97]
Collins sits in the hatch of the Apollo 11 command module after its return to the MSC'sLunar Receiving Laboratory for detailed examination
In a July 2009 interview withThe Guardian, Collins said that he was very worried about Armstrong and Aldrin's safety. He was also concerned in the event of their deaths on the Moon, he would be forced to return to Earth alone and, as the mission's sole survivor, be regarded as "a marked man for life".[98]
At 17:54 UTC on July 21,Eagle lifted off from the Moon to rejoin Collins aboardColumbia in lunar orbit.[87] After rendezvous withColumbia, the ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit, andColumbia made its way back to Earth.[99]
Columbia splashed down in thePacific Ocean 1,440 nmi (2,660 km) east ofWake Island at 16:50 UTC (05:50 local time) on July 24.[87][100] The total mission duration was eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and thirty-five seconds.[95] Divers passed biological isolation garments (BIGs) to the astronauts, and assisted them into the life raft. Though the chance of bringing backpathogens from the lunar surface was believed to be remote, it was still considered a possibility. The astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter, and flown to the aircraft carrierUSS Hornet,[101] where they spent the first part of the Earth-based portion of 21 days of quarantine (time in space was also counted), before moving on to Houston.[102]
On August 13, the three astronauts rode in parades in their honor in New York and Chicago, with about six million attendees.[103][104] On the same evening in Los Angeles there was an officialstate dinner to celebrate the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, theChief Justice of the United States, and ambassadors from 83 nations at theCentury Plaza Hotel.[103][105] In September, the astronauts embarked on a 38-day world tour that brought them to 22 foreign countries and included visits with world leaders.[106][107]
NASA AdministratorThomas O. Paine told Collins that Secretary of StateWilliam P. Rogers was interested in appointing Collins to the position ofAssistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. After the crew returned to the U.S. in November, Collins sat down with Rogers and accepted the position on the urgings of PresidentNixon.[108] He was an unusual choice for the role, as he was neither a journalist nor a career diplomat. Nor, unlike some of his predecessors, did he act as the department spokesperson. Instead, as the head of theState Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, his role was that of managing relations with the public at large. He had a staff of 115 and a budget of $2.5 million,[109] but this was small compared with the 6,000 public affairs staff at theUnited States Department of Defense.[110]
Collins was appointed to the position on December 15, 1969, and began his work on January 6, 1970.[111] He took over at a very difficult time. TheVietnam War was going badly, and theinvasion of Cambodia and theKent State shootings had triggered a wave of protests and unrest across the country. He had no illusions about his ability to change minds, but attempted to engage with the public all the same, playing on his Apollo 11 fame.[110] He attributed part of the nation's problems to insularity. In a 1970 commencement speech atSaint Michael's College in Vermont, he told his audience that "Farmers speak to farmers, students to students, business leaders to other business leaders, but this intramural talk serves mainly to mirror one's beliefs, to reinforce existing prejudices, to lock out opposing views".[112]
Collins realized he was not enjoying the job, and secured President Nixon's permission to become the Director of theNational Air and Space Museum.[113] His departure was officially announced on February 22, 1971,[114] and his term as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs ended on April 11, 1971.[115] The position remained vacant untilCarol Laise succeeded him in October 1973.[116][117]
The 1957Sputnik crisis and the resultingSpace Race led to a surge of public interest in space exploration. TheFreedom 7 andFriendship 7Project Mercury spacecraft were donated to the Smithsonian, and 2,670,000 visitors descended on theArts and Industries Building when they were put on display in 1963. The museum was renamed theNational Air and Space Museum in 1966, but there was still no funding to build it.[120] Apollo 11 created another surge of interest in space. An exhibition of aMoon rock attracted 200,000 visitors in one month.[121] On May 19, 1970, SenatorBarry Goldwater, a retired USAF major general, gave an impassioned speech in the Senate for funding of a museum building.[122]
The job had a clearly defined and tangible goal: to obtain congressional funding, and to build the museum.[110] Collins lobbied hard for the new museum. With the help of Goldwater in particular, Congress relented, and on August 10, 1972, approved $13 million and contract authority of $27 million for its construction.[123] The $40 million budget was lower than he had hoped for, and the building had to be scaled back and some economies made.[124]
In addition to cost pressure, there was also severe time pressure, as the museum was scheduled to open on July 4, 1976, as part of celebrations of the upcomingUnited States Bicentennial. The design by architectGyo Obata of theSt. Louis firmHellmuth Obata & Kassabaum aimed to harmonize the new museum with the other ones on the National Mall, so the exteriors were faced withTennessee marble to match the façade of the National Gallery of Art.[125]Gilbane Building Company was awarded the construction contract. Everything was fast-tracked. Contracts were awarded as soon as each component of the design was complete. This allowed the first contract to be awarded within five months of the start of design. The design was completed in just nine months, and all contracts were awarded within a year of the start of design.[126]
Ground was broken on the new museum on November 20, 1972.[127] The building was built horizontally rather than vertically, as is the norm, so that work on the interiors could proceed concurrently.[126] Overseeing construction was but a part of Collins' task: he also had to hire museum staff, oversee the creation of exhibits, and launch the museum'sCenter for Earth and Planetary Studies, a new division devoted to research and analysis of lunar and planetary spacecraft data.[128] Collins described the project as "a monumental effort" in which "individual creativity combined with dedicated teamwork and plain hard work".[125]
The museum was completed on budget, and opened three days ahead of schedule on July 1, 1976.[129][130] PresidentGerald Ford presided over the formal opening ceremony.[125] Over one million visitors passed through its doors in the first month, and it quickly established itself as one of the world's most popular museums, averaging between eight and nine million visitors per annum over the next two decades. Visitors entering sawColumbia in the Milestones of Flight Hall, along with theWright Flyer, theSpirit of St. Louis andGlamorous Glennis.[131]
Collins held the directorship until 1978,[132] when he stepped down to become undersecretary of theSmithsonian Institution.[133] During this time, although no longer an active-duty USAF officer after he joined the State Department in 1970, he remained in theU.S. Air Force Reserve. He attained the rank of major general in 1976, and retired in 1982.[134]
Collins also wroteLiftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space (1988), a history of the American space program,Mission to Mars (1990), a non-fiction book on human spaceflight to Mars, andFlying to the Moon and Other Strange Places(1976), revised and re-released asFlying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story(1994), a children's book on his experiences. Along with his writing, he painted watercolors, mostly of theFlorida Everglades or aircraft he flew; they were rarely space-related.[138] He did not initially sign his paintings to avoid them increasing in price just because they had his autograph on them.[139]
Buzz Aldrin, who became the last survivor of Apollo 11, said that "wherever [Collins has] been or will be, you will always have the Fire to Carry us deftly to new heights and the future."[143]
Along with the rest of the Apollo 11 crew, he was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction by President Nixon in 1969 at the state dinner in their honor.[103][158] The three were awarded theCollier Trophy and the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy in 1969.[159] TheNational Aeronautic Association president awarded a duplicate trophy to Collins and Aldrin at a ceremony.[160][161] The trio received the internationalHarmon Trophy for aviators in 1970,[162][163] conferred to them by Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew in 1971.[164] Agnew also presented them theHubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society in 1970. He told them, "You've won a place alongside Christopher Columbus in American history".[165]
Collins also received theIven C. Kincheloe Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) in 1970.[166][167] In 1989, some of his personal papers were transferred toVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.[136] In 1999, while celebrating the 30th anniversary of the lunar landing, Vice PresidentAl Gore, who was also the vice chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents, presented the Apollo 11 crew with the Smithsonian'sLangley Gold Medal for aviation. After the ceremony, the crew went to the White House and presented PresidentBill Clinton with an encased Moon rock.[168][169]
The crew was awarded the New FrontierCongressional Gold Medal in theCapitol Rotunda in 2011. It is the highest civilian award that can be received in the United States. During the ceremony, NASA administratorCharles Bolden said, "Those of us who have had the privilege to fly in space followed the trail they forged."[133][170]
Britishprog rock groupJethro Tull recorded a song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me", which appears on theBenefit album from 1970. The song compares the feelings of misfitting from vocalistIan Anderson (and friendJeffrey Hammond) with the astronaut's own, as he is left behind by the ones who had the privilege of walking on the surface of the Moon.[180] In 2013, indie pop groupThe Boy Least Likely To released the song "Michael Collins" on the albumThe Great Perhaps. The song uses Collins' feeling that he was blessed to have the type of solitude of being truly separated from all other human contact in contrast with modern society's lack of perspective.[181][182] American folk artistJohn Craigie recorded a song titled "Michael Collins" for his 2017 albumNo Rain, No Rose. The song embraces his role as an integral part of the Apollo 11 mission with the chorus, "Sometimes you take the fame, sometimes you sit back stage, but if it weren't for me them boys would still be there."[183]
Collins provided narration for theGoogle Doodle that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's 1969 mission to the Moon.[184]
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