For the uninitiated, Collins was the primary pilot during Apollo 11 who stayed in the Command Module orbiting the moon while Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took the Lunar Module down.
I all respect all Astronauts and Cosmonauts equally.
RIP Michael Collins
He was the loneliest person in the world.
Orbiting around the dark side of the moon all alone would be fucking wild.
Imagine how much more of the universe you could see from where he was sitting though. With the moon blocking the sunlight, he was able to see stars that’d never been seen before by the naked eye.
Just a reminder that the Soviets won the Space Race. :corn-man-khrush:
Yeah, yeah, American astronauts are still cool tho.
Soviets got there first, but Collins and the Apollo 13 astronauts have traveled further away from Earth of any other humans.
That’s true, but the Soviets had a different goal. They were always more focused on getting space stations up, even during the moon program. Long term habitation and settlement, not quick purpose built moon shots was the focus. And what space infrastructure we have today is largely SU influenced.
The TKS spacecraft that was being test flow in the late 80s (and provided the core of the ISS) is still the most capable and modular spacecraft ever flown and will continue to be for the forseeable future unless Musk stops his grain silos exploding.
The Soviets had a manned TKS Venus orbital mission in the works when they fell.
Being born in the golden age of leaded gasoline and still living to 90 is a miracle than can only be explained by Moon Radiation.
