We would like to honor the life of Michael Collins, who recently passed away and made a huge impact in the aerospace world. @N316TS, our fantastic Forum Moderator, has written a few words:
Yesterday, astronaut and Air Force aviator Michael Collins passed away at age 90 after a battle with cancer. Most known for his role as the Command Module Pilot of Apollo 11, Collins would have been responsible for returning the command module Columbia back to Earth alone if crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had been stranded on the moon.
Apollo 11 was not his first mission to space: He also served as the Pilot of Gemini 10 alongside Commander John Young, a legendary astronaut who both walked on the moon and commanded the first space shuttle mission. As a precursor mission to the Apollo program, Gemini 10’s primary goal was testing orbital rendezvous with an unmanned probe, Agena.
Following his tenure at NASA, Collins lobbied Congress for the building of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and served as the museum’s first director until 1978.
A full announcement and biography is available on Michael Collins’ Facebook page.
Major General Collins and his family are in the MSFS Team’s thoughts today.