Engineering & invention
Michael Collins
NASA astronaut; Apollo 11 command-module pilot
Photograph · Image credit
Who they are
Michael Collins was Apollo 11’s command-module pilot. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Moon, he remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module. His role is essential to understanding the mission as a coordinated flight involving orbital operations and the return of the landing crew, not just the moments on the surface.
He represents the orbital half of the Apollo 11 crew’s work.
Selected contributions
- Piloted Apollo 11’s command module while the landing crew descended to the surface.Source ↗
Primary records
Report · 1969
Apollo 11 mission report
NASA’s mission report covers Apollo 11’s preflight, flight and postflight activities. It is an official technical starting point for following the crew’s work within the larger mission; this description is limited to the catalogue’s stated scope.
NASA-TM-X-62633 / MSC-00171, November 1969; separate later report editions also exist.
Reading scope & citation
NTRS catalogue title, description, date and report-number fields inspected; report itself not read.
In the timeline
- Jul 20, 1969Apollo 11 lands people on the Moon
Biography sources & portrait credit
- Apollo 11 Mission Overview ↗NASA
- Apollo 11 mission report ↗NASA, Manned Spacecraft Center / NASA Technical Reports Server
Portrait credit
NASA; restored by Coffeeandcrumbs. Public domain (U.S. federal government work). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (U.S. federal government work) ↗
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