Michael Collins
 

Sad to hear that Michael Collins has lost his final battle, RIP Sir you will be remembered.

Once upon a time he was the loneliest man from this world. One forgets the courage of the men who launched out of the Earth's gravity to explore other worlds.

His book, 'Carrying the Fire', was the best of all the bio/autobios in my view. RIP.

CG

agreed!! It was one of the best stories I have ever read. Could not put the book down.
RIP to a legend on one of mankind's greatest achievements.

Well said. They must have been well aware that there was a good chance of never returning. RIP.

I have been told by others that his story telling and humour is in line with many other facets of the man. Outstanding. One of my hero's as a child and the astronaut period is only a small part of an amazing life.

Michael Collins came across as such a wonderfully down-to-earth, easy going man. Absolutely no ego, and very matter-of-fact about the entire amazing adventure of being involved in reaching the moon. What an incredible career he had!
RIP MC.

Another vote for 'Carrying the Fire' - fine, entertaining book.
Fareastdriver - he comments on that in his book - said he didn't feel lonely at all.
When I was born, there was no one alive who had been in the primarily gravitational influence of another heavenly body. That changed in December, 1968 with Apollo 8. Of course, in July 1969 there were humans alive that had actually walked on another planetary object.
I fear that, by the time I die, there again be no one alive who has been in the primary gravitational influence of another heavily body...

Someone described being struck by the appearance of the Apollo stack when you see it for real, noting the strength yet fragility of the Saturn, command module and LEM seemed "...like an ICBM crossed with a light aircraft."
To travel so far and so fast with such risk takes a special kind of courage.
Vale sir.

I agree that he wrote the best book. He was a great writer with a well developed sense of humour. Unlike most of the astronauts he had a tertiary qualification in English (as well as all the test pilot stuff!). Some wry and subtle asides on the Neil / Buzz dynamic. What a guy and what a life! RIP.

I visited the Cape in Sept 19, just before the outbreak; there is a Saturn V, broken down into stages, hanging from the roof of the Apollo Center. It is truly amazing.

I have several copies of Carrying the Fire. My favourite book. I love the fact it's not been ghost written. His very dry sense of humour and deprecating manner comes across in many interviews both old and recent. The fact he was carrying a fish nailed to a plaque to give to Guenter Wendt before the launch of Apollo XI just shows his cheeky irreverence.
I'm sure he's now off fishing with Neil Armstrong.

Can only add my like to the comments on Michael Collin's book. Very humble and gave the impression that he always felt that he just stumbled into the astronaut program. Hard to believe that these legends are now passing away and that they launched over 50 years ago, yet today we are still stuck in earth orbit.

I think Collins is on record as saying 50% -or maybe that was getting the Eagle back up to Columbia......

Brave men all - impossible to imagine now; and all with less computing power than we've got in our back pockets.

I agree with all the comments regarding his autobiography, an outstanding read. I would have loved the opportunity to meet him and get him to sign my copy, a sad passing but an eventful life.

I find it interesting that he turned down the opportunity to command Apollo 17 and walk on the Moon, as events turned out he might have been the ‘last man on the Moon’ instead of Gene Cernan. No longer the ‘forgotten astronaut’ in that event.

Instead he chose to spend more time with his family, as well as the fact that his wife wanted to leave Houston (was there an ultimatum there?) The astronauts were a driven and intensely competitive bunch so it’s not a choice many of them would have made. He was also one of the few whose marriage didn’t fail under the pressure of long hours, time away and the ‘Cape Bunnies’ throwing themselves at the astronauts, a fact probably connected to his choice.

RIP.

Several years back, GE had a CF6 operators conference in Orlando - and they always had a 'team building event' at some point during the conference. For this one they bused the whole troop to Kennedy Space Center where we toured the facility, then had dinner literally sitting under that Saturn V :ok: (minor trivia point: most of the Saturn at KSC is non flight-worthy 'boilerplate' hardware - the Saturn V's on display at Huntsville and Houston are made up of most of the surviving flight worthy hardware).
When we walked into that hall with he Saturn, they had tables of horderves and the like along with an open bar. Most of the attendees headed straight for the food and drink - but my boss (who was nearly as big of space nerd as I am) and I simply walked around the Saturn taking pictures with our phones (I did eventually grab a beer :p). At one point, my recently re-married boss's wife called - when he told her what he was doing she responded "Oh great, you're not going to interested in sex for a week" :E

There is a petition on Change.org to name the lunar gateway after astronaut Michael Collins: rename lunar gateway to Collins Gateway seems very fitting since he orbited the moon awaiting the return of the first moonwalkers

Similar thread running on JetBlast

Me too. I walked in to that hall and was utterly speechless. It was quite an emotional moment. The shear size of the F1 engines and gimbal actuators amazed me. I remember staring at them for an age trying to imagine the forces at play when those engines lit.

Many (many) years ago a work colleague was at the Smithsonian asking questions about the Apollo program. The guide(?) said he couldn’t answer but knew some one who could.

My colleague said he was taken up to an office and spent about 45 minutes talking to a very amiable Mike Collins.