Biography
Michael Collins was an American astronaut and test pilot. Selected in 1963 as part of NASA's third astronaut group, he flew in space twice. On Gemini 10 in 1966, with command pilot John Young, he performed two rendezvous and two extravehicular activities. His second mission was as command module pilot on Apollo 11 in 1969; while he remained in lunar orbit, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin completed the first crewed landing on the Moon.
Collins retired from NASA in 1970. He later served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, director of the National Air and Space Museum from 1971 to 1978, and undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He appeared in archive footage as himself in the 2019 documentary Apollo 11 and provided narration for For All Mankind (1989). He died in 2021.
