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RIP Michael Collins

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:49 am
by SpacemanSpiff
Astronaut, CM pilot of Apollo 11, also a spacewalker on Gemini 10. Age 90.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/stat ... el-collins

Re: RIP Michael Collins

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:48 pm
by Vandal
Quote taken from another message board:

Something I think about a lot is that, when he was orbiting the moon after Armstrong and Aldrin touched down, Collins was the most isolated that any human being had ever been in history. On the dark side of the moon he lost radio contact for 45 minutes and was literally thousands of miles away from another living soul. That takes a level of bravery that I don't think many people (myself included) would be able to muster.


Re: RIP Michael Collins

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:55 pm
by SpacemanSpiff
Vandal wrote:
Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:48 pm
Quote taken from another message board:

Something I think about a lot is that, when he was orbiting the moon after Armstrong and Aldrin touched down, Collins was the most isolated that any human being had ever been in history. On the dark side of the moon he lost radio contact for 45 minutes and was literally thousands of miles away from another living soul. That takes a level of bravery that I don't think many people (myself included) would be able to muster.

Add another factor, which I remember from some of his interviews about the mission -- as physically close to the two moonwalkers as he was, if something happened to them and they couldn't lift off, there wouldn't be a darn thing he could do to help. He did say that if they managed to get off the moon and into some kind of wonky orbit, maybe he could do something. But he was genuinely concerned that he'd have to leave his crewmates behind and fly home solo.

https://youtu.be/LJLwFXvVNuM?t=1442