MICHAEL COLLINS 1930-2021

摘要

The names Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are etched in history as the first two people who set foot on the Moon. Less remembered in popular culture is the third astronaut, circling solo in lunar orbit in Apollo ll's command module, Michael Collins. Collins, who died of cancer on April 28 at the age of 90, never felt overshadowed on the momentous 1969 mission. "Right after the flight, over and over people asked, 'Weren't you the loneliest person in the Universe?" he recalled in 2019. "Dear God, no. I had a happy home. I had hot coffee. I had music and turned the thermostat to 72 degrees. It was a harmonious and well-laid-out and beautiful little home." Collins left NASA shortly after Apollo 11 to embark on a new mission: stoking the fires of space exploration to the general public. He lobbied Congress to fund construction of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and served as its first director. "We hope this museum will be a window on the [Washington] Mall where the lay American public can come to understand what we in aerospace do," he said at its dedication in 1976.