Saturn Apollo Program This is the official NASA portrait of astronaut Michael Collins. Collins chose an Air Force career following graduation from West Point. He served as an experimental flight test officer at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, and, in that capacity, tested performance and stability and control characteristics of Air Force aircraft, primarily jet fighters. Having logged approximately 5,000 hours flying time, Collins was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. Collins completed two space flights, logging 266 hours in space, of which, 1 hour and 27 minutes was spent in Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA). On July 18, 1966, he served as backup pilot for the Gemini VII mission which included a successful rendezvous and docking with a separately launched Agena target vehicle and, using the power of the Agena, maneuvered the Gemini spacecraft into another orbit for a rendezvous with a second, passive Agena. His skillful performance in completing two periods of EVA included the recovery of a micrometeorite detection experiment from the passive Agena. July 16-24, 1969, Collins served as command module (CM) pilot on Apollo 11, the historic first lunar landing mission. He remained aboard the CM, Columbia, on station in lunar orbit and performed the final re-docking maneuvers following a successful lunar orbit rendezvous with the Lunar Module (LM), Eagle. Collins left NASA in January 1970.
