The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was a NASA Earth station in Australia near Canberra . It was instrumental to the Apollo program . The station was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981.
146-583: Honeysuckle Creek with a 26 metre dish is renowned as the station which received and relayed to the world the first televised footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon in July 1969. Apart from television pictures, Honeysuckle Creek and Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex , Tidbinbilla had communication and telemetry contact with the Eagle lunar and Columbia command modules. Much of this
292-676: A circumlunar 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 to Metz , 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. During 1968, Collins noticed his legs were not working as they should, first during handball 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
438-459: A micrometeorite 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. The duo activated the retrorockets 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,
584-637: A "charm school". Medical and psychiatric examinations at Brooks Air Force Base , Texas, and interviews at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston 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 the second group of nine as better than the Mercury Seven who preceded them, or the five groups that followed, including his own. That year
730-514: A VHF radio antenna to facilitate communication with the astronauts during their EVA on the lunar surface; a lighter ascent engine; more thermal protection on the landing gear; and a package of scientific experiments known as the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP). The only change in the configuration of the command module was the removal of some insulation from the forward hatch. The CSM
876-535: A challenge beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, so that the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality. A crewed mission to the Moon would serve this purpose. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy addressed the United States Congress on "Urgent National Needs" and declared: I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade [1960s]
1022-487: A crowd of about 40,000 people in the Rice University football stadium in Houston , Texas. A widely quoted refrain from the middle portion of the speech reads as follows: There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say,
1168-730: A death quickly, because of the death of Theodore Freeman in an aircraft crash in 1964, when a newspaper reporter was the first to his house. Collins and Scott were sent by NASA to the Paris Air Show in May 1967. There they met cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and Konstantin 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
1314-476: A few seconds later. Apollo 11 entered a near-circular Earth orbit at an altitude of 100.4 nautical miles (185.9 km) by 98.9 nautical miles (183.2 km), twelve minutes into its flight. After one and a half orbits, a second ignition of the S-IVB engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon with the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn at 16:22:13 UTC. About 30 minutes later, with Collins in
1460-577: A giant Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at 13:32 UTC (09:32 EDT ), and entered Earth orbit twelve minutes later. After one and a half orbits, the S-IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon. About 30 minutes later, Collins performed the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver. This involved separating Columbia from
1606-798: A job as vice president of LTV Aerospace . He resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Along with his Apollo 11 crewmates, Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011. Collins was born on October 31, 1930, in Rome , Italy. He was the second son of James Lawton Collins , a career U.S. Army officer, who was the U.S. military attaché there from 1928 to 1932, and Virginia C. Collins ( née Stewart). Collins had an older brother, James Lawton Collins Jr. and two older sisters, Virginia and Agnes. Collins' mother
SECTION 10
#17327764054351752-593: A lunar background with the Earth in the distance. The sunlight in the image was coming from the wrong direction; the shadow should have been in the lower part of the Earth instead of the left. Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins decided the Eagle and the Moon would be in their natural colors, and decided on a blue and gold border. Armstrong was concerned that "eleven" would not be understood by non-English speakers, so they went with "Apollo 11", and they decided not to put their names on
1898-627: A malfunction caused Luna 15 to crash in Mare Crisium about two hours before Armstrong and Aldrin took off from the Moon's surface to begin their voyage home. The Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories radio telescope in England recorded transmissions from Luna 15 during its descent, and these were released in July 2009 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. The initial crew assignment of Commander Neil Armstrong , Command Module Pilot (CMP) Jim Lovell , and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin on
2044-560: A painting by artist Walter A. Weber in a National Geographic Society book, Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America , 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 sign Columbia for the CSM came from Julian Scheer , the NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. He mentioned
2190-638: A quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth as pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia in lunar orbit , and were on the Moon's surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes, before lifting off to rejoin Columbia . Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida , on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, and it
2336-836: A very difficult time. The Vietnam War was going badly, and the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent 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. He attributed part of the nation's problems to insularity. In a 1970 commencement speech at Saint 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". Collins realized he
2482-472: Is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which
2628-555: Is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations—explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon—if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there. On September 12, 1962, Kennedy delivered another speech before
2774-575: The Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in San Juan, Puerto Rico . After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Washington, D.C. , where Collins attended St. Albans School and graduated in 1948. His mother wanted him to enter the diplomatic service , but he decided to follow his father, two uncles, brother, and cousin into the armed services. He received an appointment to
2920-572: The Australian Capital Territory . The climate of Honeysuckle Creek, as to be expected of its much greater elevation, is significantly cooler than that of Canberra. Notwithstanding, its maximum temperatures are warm relative to elevation, due to the fact that it still lay on the leeward (eastern) side of the Brindabella Range . Annually, it receives 14.4 snowy days on average. Apollo 11 Apollo 11
3066-603: The Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA, called and asked if he was still interested in becoming an astronaut. Charles Bassett was also accepted. By this time Collins had flown over 3,000 hours, of which 2,700 were in jet aircraft. Compared with the first two groups of astronauts, the third 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
SECTION 20
#17327764054353212-610: The Eisenhower dollar coin was released in 1971, the patch design provided the eagle for its reverse side. The design was also used for the smaller Susan B. Anthony dollar unveiled in 1979. After the crew of Apollo 10 named their spacecraft Charlie Brown and Snoopy , assistant manager for public affairs Julian Scheer wrote to George Low , the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office at
3358-515: The Milky Way . Collins' and Young's eyes began to water, forcing an early end to the EVA. Lithium hydroxide , which was normally used to remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the cabin, had accidentally been fed into the astronauts' space suits. The compressor causing the problem was switched off, and a high oxygen flow was used to purge the environmental control system. Prior to Collins' second EVA,
3504-652: The Sputnik crisis , and triggered the Space Race to prove which superpower would achieve superior spaceflight capability. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the Sputnik challenge by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and initiating Project Mercury , which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit . But on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became
3650-564: The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York , from which his father and his older brother had graduated in 1907 and 1939 respectively. He graduated on June 3, 1952, with a Bachelor of Science degree in military science , finishing 185th of 527 cadets in the class, which included future fellow astronaut Ed White . Collins' decision to join the United States Air Force (USAF)
3796-408: The amphibious assault ship USS Guadalcanal , and were picked up by helicopter. Collins and Young completed nearly all the major objectives of the flight. 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. Shortly after Gemini 10, Collins was assigned to
3942-533: 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 by Voskhod 2 . A second burn of the Agena 10 engine at 03:58 on July 19 put them into the same orbit as Agena 8, which had been launched for the Gemini 8 mission on March 16. For his first EVA Collins did not leave
4088-405: The Agena 10 spacecraft was jettisoned. Young positioned the capsule close enough to Agena 8 for Collins to get to it while attached to his 49-foot (15 m) umbilical. Collins became the first person to perform two spacewalks in the same mission. He found it took much longer to complete tasks than he expected, something Cernan also experienced during his spacewalk on Gemini 9. He removed
4234-462: The Apollo 11 mission include the following. The Apollo 11 mission emblem was designed by Collins, who wanted a symbol for "peaceful lunar landing by the United States". At Lovell's suggestion, he chose the bald eagle , the national bird of the United States, as the symbol. Tom Wilson, a simulator instructor, suggested an olive branch in its beak to represent their peaceful mission. Collins added
4380-511: The CMP on the Apollo ;8 crew, began experiencing trouble with his legs. Doctors diagnosed the problem as a bony growth between his fifth and sixth vertebrae, requiring surgery. Lovell took his place on the Apollo 8 crew, and when Collins recovered he joined Armstrong's crew as CMP. In the meantime, Fred Haise filled in as backup LMP, and Aldrin as backup CMP for Apollo 8. Apollo 11 was
4526-536: The CMP would have to fly the CM alone. Collins was therefore moved to the CMP position on the Apollo 9 prime crew, and Anders became the LMP. 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. 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
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station - Misplaced Pages Continue
4672-693: The Class of 1952 from the United States Military Academy . He followed his father, brother, uncle, and cousin into the military. He joined the United States Air Force , and flew F-86 Sabre fighters at Chambley-Bussières Air Base , France. He was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960, also graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class III). Selected as part of NASA 's third group of 14 astronauts in 1963, Collins flew in space twice. His first spaceflight
4818-626: The F-86. He moved with the 21st to Chambley-Bussières Air Base , France, in December 1954. He won first prize in a 1956 gunnery competition. During a NATO exercise that year, he was forced to eject from an F-86, near Chaumont-Semoutiers AB , after a fire started aft of the cockpit. Collins met his future wife, Patricia Mary Finnegan from Boston , Massachusetts, in an officers' mess. A graduate of Emmanuel College , where she majored in English, she
4964-436: The Gemini capsule, but stood up through the hatch with an ultraviolet camera. 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. In his biography he said he felt at that moment like a Roman god riding the skies in his chariot. The EVA started on the dark side of the Earth so Collins could take photos of
5110-451: The LM. 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 at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia . Since he would be the active participant in
5256-455: The MSC, to suggest the Apollo 11 crew be less flippant in naming their craft. The name Snowcone was used for the CM and Haystack was used for the LM in both internal and external communications during early mission planning. The LM was named Eagle after the motif which was featured prominently on the mission insignia. At Scheer's suggestion, the CM was named Columbia after Columbiad ,
5402-720: The Moon already had a name: Project Apollo . When Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev , the Premier of the Soviet Union in June 1961, he proposed making the Moon landing a joint project, but Khrushchev did not take up the offer. Kennedy again proposed a joint expedition to the Moon in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 1963. The idea of a joint Moon mission was abandoned after Kennedy's death. An early and crucial decision
5548-460: 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. 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. Propelled by
5694-458: The Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic ? Why does Rice play Texas ? We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon ;... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure
5840-547: The North American T-28 Trojan , and proceeded through the high performance F-86 Sabre , B-57 Canberra , T-33 Shooting Star , and the F-104 Starfighter . Collins was a heavy smoker, but quit in 1962 after suffering a particularly bad hangover . The next day, he spent what he described as the worst four hours of his life in the co-pilot's seat of a B-52 Stratofortress while going through
5986-467: The Pacific 1,440 nmi (2,660 km) east of Wake Island at 16:50 UTC (05:50 local time) on July 24. The total mission duration was eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and thirty-five seconds. Divers passed biological isolation garments (BIGs) to the astronauts, and assisted them into the life raft. Though the chance of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface was believed to be remote, it
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station - Misplaced Pages Continue
6132-599: The Parkes antenna was more powerful than Honeysuckle, the angle of its dish – at a lowermost pitch of 30 degrees and buffeted by wind gusts up to 100 km/h – was not in line to receive signals during the first seven minutes of the moon landing. Honeysuckle Creek signals were sent direct to Overseas Telecommunications Commission in Sydney via Williamsdale and Red Hill in Canberra. Working for NASA, Charlie Goodman selected
6278-668: The Space Race by beating the US to firsts, but its early lead was overtaken by the US Gemini program and Soviet failure to develop the N1 launcher , which would have been comparable to the Saturn V. The Soviets tried to beat the US to return lunar material to the Earth by means of uncrewed probes . On July 13, three days before Apollo 11's launch, the Soviet Union launched Luna 15 , which reached lunar orbit before Apollo 11. During descent,
6424-962: The USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School became the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), as the Air Force tried to enter into space research through the X-15 and X-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 and Joe Engle . Along with classwork, they also flew up to about 90,000 feet (27,000 m) in F-104 Starfighters . As they passed through
6570-554: The United States; the rest came from 55 other countries. The launch was televised live in 33 countries, with an estimated 25 million viewers in the United States alone. Millions more around the world listened to radio broadcasts. President Richard Nixon viewed the launch from his office in the White House with his NASA liaison officer, Apollo astronaut Frank Borman . Saturn V AS-506 launched Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00 UTC (9:32:00 EDT ). At 13.2 seconds into
6716-483: The Vehicle Assembly Building atop the crawler-transporter , bound for Launch Pad 39A, part of Launch Complex 39 , while Apollo 10 was still on its way to the Moon. A countdown test commenced on June 26, and concluded on July 2. The launch complex was floodlit on the night of July 15, when the crawler-transporter carried the mobile service structure back to its parking area. In the early hours of
6862-516: The astronauts back into lunar orbit. After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V's third stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20. The astronauts used Eagle ' s ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in
7008-490: The audiovisual feeds from Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes for worldwide broadcasts. The Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla antennas were built and run by NASA, but staffed by Australians. It was the policy of the Australian Government that the director had to be a citizen or permanent resident of Australia. When Apollo missions ended in 1972, Honeysuckle Creek was redirected to the new Skylab program. As well, it
7154-470: The backup crew for Apollo 9 was officially announced on November 20, 1967. Lovell and Aldrin had previously flown together as the crew of Gemini 12 . Due to design and manufacturing delays in the LM, Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 swapped prime and backup crews, and Armstrong's crew became the backup for Apollo 8. Based on the normal crew rotation scheme, Armstrong was then expected to command Apollo 11. There would be one change. Michael Collins ,
7300-476: The backup crew for the second crewed Apollo flight, with Borman as commander (CDR), Stafford as command module pilot (CMP), and Collins as lunar module pilot (LMP). Along with learning the new Apollo command and service module (CSM) and the Apollo 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
7446-412: The backup crew. They then donned their space suits and began breathing pure oxygen. At 06:30, they headed out to Launch Complex 39. Haise entered Columbia about three hours and ten minutes before launch time. Along with a technician, he helped Armstrong into the left-hand couch at 06:54. Five minutes later, Collins joined him, taking up his position on the right-hand couch. Finally, Aldrin entered, taking
SECTION 50
#17327764054357592-480: The best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too. In spite of that, the proposed program faced the opposition of many Americans and was dubbed a " moondoggle " by Norbert Wiener , a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The effort to land a man on
7738-434: The center couch. Haise left around two hours and ten minutes before launch. The closeout crew sealed the hatch, and the cabin was purged and pressurized. The closeout crew then left the launch complex about an hour before launch time. The countdown became automated at three minutes and twenty seconds before launch time. Over 450 personnel were at the consoles in the firing room . An estimated one million spectators watched
7884-428: 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. 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
8030-427: The close cheerful camaraderie characterized by that of Apollo 12 . Instead, they forged an amiable working relationship. Armstrong in particular was notoriously aloof, but Collins, who considered himself a loner, confessed to rebuffing Aldrin's attempts to create a more personal relationship. Aldrin and Collins described the crew as "amiable strangers". Armstrong did not agree with the assessment, and said "... all
8176-617: The command module on Apollo 10 , the second person to orbit the Moon alone. After retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins took a job in the Department of State as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs . A year later, he became the director of the National Air and Space Museum , and held this position until 1978, when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution . In 1980, he took
8322-466: The command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled Columbia out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits onto a trajectory back to Earth. They returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space. Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience. He described
8468-507: The completion of Project Gemini , it was decided to cancel the Apollo 2 flight, since it would just repeat the Apollo 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
8614-650: The crater Sabine D . The site was selected in part because it had been characterized as relatively flat and smooth by the automated Ranger 8 and Surveyor 5 landers and the Lunar Orbiter mapping spacecraft, and because it was unlikely to present major landing or EVA challenges. It lay about 25 kilometers (16 mi) southeast of the Surveyor ;5 landing site, and 68 kilometers (42 mi) southwest of Ranger 8's crash site. At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle , and began
8760-475: The crews I was on worked very well together." The backup crew consisted of Lovell as Commander, William Anders as CMP, and Haise as LMP. Anders had flown with Lovell on Apollo 8. In early 1969, Anders accepted a job with the National Aeronautics and Space Council effective August 1969, and announced he would retire as an astronaut at that time. Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup CMP in case Apollo 11
8906-435: The dark on the decision until late spring. Slayton told Armstrong the plan was to have him leave the spacecraft first, if he agreed. Armstrong said, "Yes, that's the way to do it." The media accused Armstrong of exercising his commander's prerogative to exit the spacecraft first. Chris Kraft revealed in his 2001 autobiography that a meeting occurred between Gilruth, Slayton, Low, and himself to make sure Aldrin would not be
SECTION 60
#17327764054359052-487: The deaths of the Gemini 9 crew, Charles Bassett and Elliot See , in the 1966 NASA T-38 crash . They were replaced on Gemini 9 by their backups, Stafford and Gene Cernan . Cernan was the second of the fourteen to fly in space. Lovell and Aldrin became their backups, and Alan Bean and C.C. Williams took their place as the Gemini 10 backup crew. Collins would be the seventeenth American, and third member of his group, to fly in space. Training for Gemini 10
9198-477: The descent burn, and 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above the surface of the Moon, the LM guidance computer (LGC) distracted the crew with the first of several unexpected 1201 and 1202 program alarms. Inside Mission Control Center, computer engineer Jack Garman told Guidance Officer Steve Bales it was safe to continue the descent, and this was relayed to the crew. The program alarms indicated "executive overflows", meaning
9344-418: The diagnosis was a cervical disc herniation , requiring two vertebrae to be fused . The surgery was performed at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base , Texas. The planned recuperation time was three to six months. Collins spent three months in a neck brace. As a result, he was removed from the prime crew of Apollo 9 and his backup, Jim Lovell, replaced him as CMP. When the Apollo 8 mission
9490-410: The event as "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 11 effectively proved U.S. victory in the Space Race to demonstrate spaceflight superiority, by fulfilling a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy , "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." In the late 1950s and early 1960s , the United States
9636-433: The event of the launch being delayed. In May 1969, Apollo 10's lunar module flew to within 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) of Site 2, and reported it was acceptable. During the first press conference after the Apollo 11 crew was announced, the first question was, "Which one of you gentlemen will be the first man to step onto the lunar surface?" Slayton told the reporter it had not been decided, and Armstrong added that it
9782-434: The final decision was largely driven by the lunar module's hatch location. Because the astronauts had their spacesuits on and the spacecraft was so small, maneuvering to exit the spacecraft was difficult. The crew tried a simulation in which Aldrin left the spacecraft first, but he damaged the simulator while attempting to egress. While this was enough for mission planners to make their decision, Aldrin and Armstrong were left in
9928-522: The final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia . Collins, alone aboard Columbia , inspected Eagle as it pirouetted before him to ensure the craft was not damaged, and that the landing gear was correctly deployed. Armstrong exclaimed: "The Eagle has wings!" As the descent began, Armstrong and Aldrin found themselves passing landmarks on the surface two or three seconds early, and reported that they were "long"; they would land miles west of their target point. Eagle
10074-447: The first because Armstrong was a civilian, which made Aldrin livid. Aldrin attempted to persuade other lunar module pilots he should be first, but they responded cynically about what they perceived as a lobbying campaign. Attempting to stem interdepartmental conflict, Slayton told Aldrin that Armstrong would be first since he was the commander. The decision was announced in a press conference on April 14, 1969. For decades, Aldrin believed
10220-581: The first person in space, and the first to orbit the Earth. Nearly a month later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, completing a 15-minute suborbital journey. After being recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, he received a congratulatory telephone call from Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy . Since the Soviet Union had higher lift capacity launch vehicles , Kennedy chose, from among options presented by NASA,
10366-461: The first to fly was Scott on Gemini 8 , and Charles Bassett was assigned to Gemini 9 . Under the system of crew rotation established by Slayton, being on the backup crew of Gemini 7 set Collins up to pilot Gemini 10 . Gemini 7 was commanded by Borman, whom Collins knew well from their days at Edwards, with Jim Lovell as the pilot. Collins made a point of providing a daily briefing to their wives, Susan Borman and Marilyn Lovell, on
10512-530: The first to walk on the Moon. They argued that the first person to walk on the Moon should be like Charles Lindbergh , a calm and quiet person. They made the decision to change the flight plan so the commander was the first to egress from the spacecraft. The ascent stage of LM-5 Eagle arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on January 8, 1969, followed by the descent stage four days later, and CSM-107 Columbia on January 23. There were several differences between Eagle and Apollo 10's LM-4 Snoopy ; Eagle had
10658-503: The flight, the launch vehicle began to roll into its flight azimuth of 72.058°. Full shutdown of the first-stage engines occurred about 2 minutes and 42 seconds into the mission, followed by separation of the S-IC and ignition of the S-II engines. The second stage engines then cut off and separated at about 9 minutes and 8 seconds, allowing the first ignition of the S-IVB engine
10804-487: The giant cannon that launched a spacecraft (also from Florida) in Jules Verne 's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon . It also referred to Columbia , a historical name of the United States. In Collins' 1976 book, he said Columbia was in reference to Christopher Columbus . The astronauts had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of significance they wanted to take with them on
10950-629: The guidance computer could not complete all its tasks in real-time and had to postpone some of them. Margaret Hamilton , the Director of Apollo Flight Computer Programming at the MIT Charles Stark Draper Laboratory later recalled: To blame the computer for the Apollo 11 problems is like blaming the person who spots a fire and calls the fire department. Actually, the computer was programmed to do more than recognize error conditions. A complete set of recovery programs
11096-557: The head of the State 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, but this was small compared with the 6,000 public affairs staff at the United States Department of Defense . Collins was appointed to the position on December 15, 1969, and began his work on January 6, 1970. He took over at
11242-530: The idea to Collins in a conversation and Collins could not think of anything better. 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 of Apollo 14 , followed by commander of Apollo 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
11388-473: The initial stages of nicotine withdrawal . The inspiration for Collins in his decision to become a NASA astronaut was the Mercury Atlas 6 flight of John 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
11534-1049: The interim, graduates of the Military Academy were eligible for Air Force commissions. 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. Collins began basic flight training in the T-6 Texan at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi , in August 1952, then moved on to San Marcos Air Force Base in Texas to learn instrument and formation flying, and finally to James Connally Air Force Base in Waco , Texas, for training in jet aircraft. Flying came easily to him, and unlike many of his colleagues, he had little fear of failure. He
11680-560: The launch of Apollo 11 from the highways and beaches in the vicinity of the launch site. Dignitaries included the Chief of Staff of the United States Army , General William Westmoreland , four cabinet members , 19 state governors , 40 mayors , 60 ambassadors and 200 congressmen . Vice President Spiro Agnew viewed the launch with former president Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson . Around 3,500 media representatives were present. About two-thirds were from
11826-473: The launch phase up to translunar injection , the rocket burn that sent Apollo 8 to the Moon. 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 Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 testing
11972-425: The left seat and at the controls, the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver was performed. This involved separating Columbia from the spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking with Eagle still attached to the stage. After the LM was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew on a trajectory past the Moon. This was done to avoid the third stage colliding with
12118-542: The lunar surface by the five uncrewed probes of the Lunar Orbiter program and information about surface conditions provided by the Surveyor program . The best Earth-bound telescopes could not resolve features with the resolution Project Apollo required. The landing site had to be close to the lunar equator to minimize the amount of propellant required, clear of obstacles to minimize maneuvering, and flat to simplify
12264-459: The mission. Five 0.5-pound (0.23 kg) PPKs were carried on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on Columbia before launch, and two on Eagle . Neil Armstrong's LM PPK contained a piece of wood from the Wright brothers ' 1903 Wright Flyer ' s left propeller and a piece of fabric from its wing, along with a diamond-studded astronaut pin originally given to Slayton by
12410-455: The morning, the fuel tanks of the S-II and S-IVB stages were filled with liquid hydrogen . Fueling was completed by three hours before launch. Launch operations were partly automated, with 43 programs written in the ATOLL programming language . Slayton roused the crew shortly after 04:00, and they showered, shaved, and had the traditional pre-flight breakfast of steak and eggs with Slayton and
12556-463: The nineteen had test pilot experience, and seven were graduates of the ARPS. Fifteen scientific experiments were carried on Gemini 10 —more than any other Gemini mission except the two-week-long Gemini 7. 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
12702-403: 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 for Project 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
12848-426: The only one with an older brother; all the rest were the eldest or only sons in their families. 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. At the end, Alan Shepard , the Chief of the Astronaut Office , asked the fourteen to rank their fellow astronauts in
12994-523: The only part that returned to Earth; a service module (SM), which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages—a descent stage for landing on the Moon, and an ascent stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit. This design meant the spacecraft could be launched by a single Saturn V rocket that was then under development. Technologies and techniques required for Apollo were developed by Project Gemini . The Apollo project
13140-408: The order they would want to fly with them in space. Collins picked David Scott in the number one position. After this basic training, the third group was assigned specializations. Collins received his first choice: pressure suits and extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). His job was to monitor development and act as a liaison between the Astronaut Office and contractors. He
13286-414: The patch, so it would "be representative of everyone who had worked toward a lunar landing". An illustrator at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) did the artwork, which was then sent off to NASA officials for approval. The design was rejected. Bob Gilruth , the director of the MSC felt the talons of the eagle looked "too warlike". After some discussion, the olive branch was moved to the talons. When
13432-407: The prime and backup crews were apprised of changes. They developed procedures, especially those for emergency situations, so these were ready for when the prime and backup crews came to train in the simulators, allowing them to concentrate on practicing and mastering them. For Apollo 11, the support crew consisted of Ken Mattingly, Ronald Evans and Bill Pogue . The capsule communicator (CAPCOM)
13578-414: The progress of the two-week Gemini 7 mission. After the successful completion of Gemini 7 on January 24, 1966, Collins was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10, but with John Young as mission commander, as White moved on to the Apollo program . Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin were designated as the backup commander and pilot respectively. The arrangements were disturbed on February 28 by
13724-411: The rendezvous with the LM, Collins compiled a book 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. The mission 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
13870-678: The same evening in Los Angeles there was an official state dinner to celebrate the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, the Chief Justice of the United States , and ambassadors from 83 nations at the Century Plaza Hotel . In September, the astronauts embarked on a 38-day world tour that brought them to 22 foreign countries and included visits with world leaders. NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine told Collins that Secretary of State William P. Rogers
14016-489: The second American mission where all the crew members had prior spaceflight experience, the first being Apollo 10. The next was STS-26 in 1988. Deke Slayton gave Armstrong the option to replace Aldrin with Lovell, since some thought Aldrin was difficult to work with. Armstrong had no issues working with Aldrin but thought it over for a day before declining. He thought Lovell deserved to command his own mission (eventually Apollo 13 ). The Apollo 11 prime crew had none of
14162-445: The southern Sea of Tranquillity about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of the crater Sabine D . At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle and began the final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia . Collins, alone aboard Columbia , inspected Eagle as it rotated before him to ensure the craft was not damaged and that the landing gear had correctly deployed before heading for
14308-470: The spacecraft, the Earth, or the Moon. A slingshot effect from passing around the Moon threw it into an orbit around the Sun . On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit . In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw passing views of their landing site in the southern Sea of Tranquility about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of
14454-491: The spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking with the Lunar Module Eagle . After it was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew on a trajectory past it. On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit . In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw passing views of their landing site in
14600-561: The students traveled to him. Collins' MTD posting allowed him to accumulate over 1,500 flying hours, the minimum required for admission to the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base , California. His application was successful, and on August 29, 1960, he became a member of Class 60C, which included Frank Borman , Jim Irwin and Tom Stafford , who later became astronauts. Military test pilot instruction started with
14746-564: The subsequent investigation. In October 1968, Apollo 7 evaluated the command module in Earth orbit, and in December Apollo 8 tested it in lunar orbit. In March 1969, Apollo 9 put the lunar module through its paces in Earth orbit, and in May Apollo 10 conducted a "dress rehearsal" in lunar orbit. By July 1969, all was in readiness for Apollo 11 to take the final step onto the Moon. The Soviet Union appeared to be winning
14892-405: The surface. During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although it has been said "not since Adam has any human known such solitude", 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
15038-423: 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 the fuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return. Columbia orbited the Moon thirty times. Just before he reached the far side on the third orbit, Mission Control informed Collins there
15184-457: The task of the landing radar. Scientific value was not a consideration. Areas that appeared promising on photographs taken on Earth were often found to be totally unacceptable. The original requirement that the site be free of craters had to be relaxed, as no such site was found. Five sites were considered: Sites 1 and 2 were in the Sea of Tranquility ( Mare Tranquillitatis ); Site 3
15330-420: The temperature. When Columbia 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 for Eagle to meet up with Columbia , Collins
15476-426: The top of their arc, they would experience a brief period of weightlessness . On finishing this course he returned to fighter operations in May 1963. 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 at Randolph Air Force Base , Texas, on October 14 when Deke Slayton ,
15622-463: The widows of the Apollo 1 crew. This pin had been intended to be flown on that mission and given to Slayton afterwards, but following the disastrous launch pad fire and subsequent funerals, the widows gave the pin to Slayton. Armstrong took it with him on Apollo 11. NASA's Apollo Site Selection Board announced five potential landing sites on February 8, 1968. These were the result of two years' worth of studies based on high-resolution photography of
15768-479: Was "not based on individual desire". One of the first versions of the egress checklist had the lunar module pilot exit the spacecraft before the commander, which matched what had been done on Gemini missions, where the commander had never performed the spacewalk. Reporters wrote in early 1969 that Aldrin would be the first man to walk on the Moon, and Associate Administrator George Mueller told reporters he would be first as well. Aldrin heard that Armstrong would be
15914-603: Was a spaceflight conducted by the United States from July 16 to July 24, 1969. It marked the first time that humans landed on the Moon . Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC , and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and
16060-415: Was a problem with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts of Columbia 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
16206-507: 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 nominally Episcopalian , while Finnegan came from a staunchly Roman Catholic family. Collins converted to Catholicism before their marriage and is considered the first Catholic in space. After seeking permission to marry from Finnegan's father, and delaying their wedding when Collins
16352-534: 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. The mission plan called for multiple dockings with the Agena target, but an error by Collins in using the sextant caused them to burn valuable propellant, resulting in Mission Control calling off this objective to conserve propellant. Once docked,
16498-453: 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". At 17:54 UTC on July 21, Eagle lifted off from the Moon to rejoin Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit. After rendezvous with Columbia , the ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit, and Columbia made its way back to Earth. Columbia splashed down in
16644-605: Was an altar boy who served at the National Cathedral in Washington DC, but in his own words, he was "probably the only astronaut who had never been a Boy Scout". He took his first plane ride in Puerto Rico aboard a Grumman Widgeon ; the pilot allowed him to fly it for a portion of the flight. He wanted to fly again, but since World War II started soon after, he was unable. He studied for two years in
16790-399: Was an American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , made the first crewed landing on the surface . He was also a test pilot and major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve . Born in Rome , Italy, where his father was serving as the U.S. military attaché , Collins graduated in
16936-579: Was an astronaut at the Mission Control Center in Houston , Texas, who was the only person who communicated directly with the flight crew. For Apollo 11, the CAPCOMs were: Charles Duke , Ronald Evans, Bruce McCandless II , James Lovell, William Anders, Ken Mattingly, Fred Haise, Don L. Lind , Owen K. Garriott and Harrison Schmitt . The flight directors for this mission were: Other key personnel who played important roles in
17082-558: Was awarded his wings upon completion of the course at Waco, and in September 1953, he was chosen for advanced day-fighter training at Nellis Air Force Base , Nevada , flying F-86 Sabres . The training was dangerous; eleven people were killed in accidents during the 22 weeks he was there. This was followed by an assignment in January 1954 to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at George Air Force Base , California, where he learned ground attack and nuclear weapons delivery techniques in
17228-402: 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 colleague William Anders were born outside the United States, and Collins was
17374-469: Was changed from a CSM/LM mission in high Earth orbit to a CSM-only flight around the Moon, both prime and backup crews for Apollo 8 and 9 swapped places. Having trained for the flight, Collins was made a capsule communicator (CAPCOM), an astronaut stationed at Mission Control responsible for communicating directly with the crew during a mission. As part of the Green Team, he covered
17520-417: Was choosing lunar orbit rendezvous over both direct ascent and Earth orbit rendezvous . A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver in which two spacecraft navigate through space and meet up. In July 1962 NASA head James Webb announced that lunar orbit rendezvous would be used and that the Apollo spacecraft would have three major parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and
17666-492: Was decommissioned in late 2009. In May 2010, the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics declared the antenna a Historical Aerospace Site. The antenna remains in perpetuity as a historical site at Tidbinbilla. Today, at Honeysuckle Creek, the concrete foundation is the only remnant of the tracking station. An outdoor display was added in 2001. Honeysuckle Creek is considered the geographical centre of
17812-405: Was delayed past its intended July launch date, at which point Anders would be unavailable. By the normal crew rotation in place during Apollo, Lovell, Mattingly, and Haise were scheduled to fly on Apollo 14 , but the three of them were bumped to Apollo 13 : there was a crew issue for Apollo 13 as none of them except Edgar Mitchell flew in space again. George Mueller rejected the crew and this
17958-422: Was disturbed by the secretive planning of Ed White's EVA on Gemini 4 , because he was not involved despite being the person with the greatest knowledge of the subject. In late June 1965, Collins received his first crew assignment: the backup pilot for Gemini 7 , with his West Point classmate Ed White named as the backup mission commander. Collins was the first of the fourteen to receive a crew assignment, but
18104-405: Was dramatised as involving Parkes Observatory in the 2000 Australian film The Dish . In fact, Parkes received pictures only came into play later in the moon landing. Six hours after landing, the first steps on the Moon were transmitted from Honeysuckle Creek, after an initial attempt to use the pictures from Goldstone had been hampered by operator error and poor scan conversion settings. Although
18250-613: Was enabled by NASA's adoption of new advances in semiconductor device , including metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) and silicon integrated circuit (IC) chips in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). Project Apollo was abruptly halted by the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967, in which astronauts Gus Grissom , Ed White , and Roger B. Chaffee died, and
18396-517: Was engaged in the Cold War , a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union . On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 , the first artificial satellite . This surprise success fired fears and imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, and challenged American claims of military, economic, and technological superiority. This precipitated
18542-609: Was in the Central Bay ( Sinus Medii ); and Sites 4 and 5 were in the Ocean of Storms ( Oceanus Procellarum ). The final site selection was based on seven criteria: The requirement for the Sun angle was particularly restrictive, limiting the launch date to one day per month. A landing just after dawn was chosen to limit the temperature extremes the astronauts would experience. The Apollo Site Selection Board selected Site 2, with Sites 3 and 5 as backups in
18688-473: Was incorporated into the software. The software's action, in this case, was to eliminate lower priority tasks and re-establish the more important ones. The computer, rather than almost forcing an abort, prevented an abort. If the computer hadn't recognized this problem and taken recovery action, I doubt if Apollo 11 would have been the successful Moon landing it was. Michael Collins (astronaut) Michael "Mike" Collins (October 31, 1930 – April 28, 2021)
18834-490: Was interested in appointing Collins to the position of Assistant 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 President Nixon . 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
18980-462: Was interrupted in March when Slayton diverted Young, Collins and Williams to represent their respective services on a panel to select another group of astronauts , along with himself, Shepard, spacecraft designer Max Faget , and astronaut training officer Warren J. North . Young protested the loss of a week's training to no avail. Applying strict criteria for age, flying experience and education reduced
19126-662: Was mated on January 29, and moved from the Operations and Checkout Building to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 14. The S-IVB third stage of Saturn V AS-506 had arrived on January 18, followed by the S-II second stage on February 6, S-IC first stage on February 20, and the Saturn V Instrument Unit on February 27. At 12:30 on May 20, the 5,443-tonne (5,357-long-ton; 6,000-short-ton) assembly departed
19272-519: Was motivated by both the wonder of what the next fifty years might bring in aeronautics , and to avoid accusations of nepotism had he joined the Army—where his brother was already a colonel , his father had reached the rank of major general and his uncle, General J. Lawton Collins (1896–1987), was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army . The Air Force Academy , still under construction, would not graduate its first class for several years. In
19418-546: Was not enjoying the job, and secured President Nixon's permission to become the Director of the National Air and Space Museum. His departure was officially announced on February 22, 1971, and his term as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs ended on April 11, 1971. The position remained vacant until Carol Laise succeeded him in October 1973. On August 12, 1946, Congress passed an authorization bill for
19564-426: Was of British descent, and his father's family hailed from Ireland . For the first 17 years of his life, Collins lived in many places as the Army posted his father to different locations: Rome; Oklahoma ; Governors Island , New York ; Fort Hoyle (near Baltimore , Maryland ); Fort Hayes (near Columbus, Ohio ); Puerto Rico ; San Antonio , Texas ; and Alexandria, Virginia . During his boyhood, Collins
19710-473: Was on Gemini 10 in 1966, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and undertook two extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). On the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, he became one of 24 people to fly to the Moon , which he orbited thirty times. He was the fourth person (and third American) to perform a spacewalk , the first person to have performed more than one spacewalk, and, after Young, who flew
19856-469: Was out of radio contact with the Earth while Columbia 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". 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
20002-428: Was prepared for certain contingencies in which he would fly Columbia down to meet Eagle . 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: In a July 2009 interview with The Guardian , Collins said that he was very worried about Armstrong and Aldrin's safety. He
20148-443: Was redeployed to West Germany during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution , they married in 1957. They had a daughter, actress Kate Collins , in 1959, a second daughter, Ann, in 1961 and a son, Michael, in 1963. After Collins returned to the United States in late 1957, he attended an aircraft maintenance officer course at Chanute Air Force Base , Illinois . He would later describe this school as "dismal" in his autobiography; he found
20294-533: 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 and Roger 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
20440-416: Was scaled significantly back. There was no backpack or astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU), as there had been on Gemini 8. Their three-day mission called for them to rendezvous with two Agena Target Vehicles , undertake two EVAs, and perform 15 different experiments. The training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies of orbital rendezvous , controlling the Agena and, for Collins, the EVA. For what
20586-549: Was still considered a possibility. The astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter, and flown to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet , 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. On August 13, the three astronauts rode in parades in their honor in New York and Chicago, with about six million attendees. On
20732-429: Was the fifth crewed mission of NASA 's Apollo program . The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, the only part that returned to Earth; a service module (SM) , which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages—a descent stage for landing on the Moon and an ascent stage to place
20878-457: Was the first time an Apollo crew was rejected. To give Alan Shepard more training time, Lovell's crew were bumped to Apollo 13. Mattingly would later be replaced by Jack Swigert as CMP on Apollo 13. During Projects Mercury and Gemini, each mission had a prime and a backup crew. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts was added, known as the support crew. The support crew maintained the flight plan, checklists and mission ground rules, and ensured
21024-549: 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". Gemini 10 lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral at 17:20 local time on July 18, 1966. Upon reaching orbit, it
21170-420: Was traveling too fast. The problem could have been mascons —concentrations of high mass in a region or regions of the Moon's crust that contains a gravitational anomaly , potentially altering Eagle 's trajectory. Flight Director Gene Kranz speculated that it could have resulted from extra air pressure in the docking tunnel, or a result of Eagle ' s pirouette maneuver. Five minutes into
21316-666: Was used for experiments with Apollo scientific stations placed on the Moon by astronauts . At the end of the Skylab program in 1974, Honeysuckle Creek was connected to the Deep Space Network with the designation Deep Space Station 44. Honeysuckle Creek closed in December 1981. The 26m antenna was relocated nearby to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla , and redesignated Deep Space Station 46. The antenna
#434565