PILOT SPIN

Pilot Zone => Pilot Zone => Topic started by: Lucifer on April 28, 2021, 10:45:23 AM

Title: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Lucifer on April 28, 2021, 10:45:23 AM
He was never forgotten by me.   One of the true great American Heroes.

(https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/01/13/gettyimages-517427560_slide-aa9a6d32a2b38deacf97799783016badcfd11c1f-s800-c85.webp)


https://www.npr.org/2021/04/28/509599284/forgotten-astronaut-michael-collins-dies

Quote
An astronaut who flew on one of the most famous space missions of all time has died. Michael Collins, 90, was part of the three-member crew on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission in 1969. Unlike Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, he never walked on the moon. Collins stayed behind and piloted the command module as it circled above. Because of that, Collins is often called the 'forgotten astronaut'.

Collins had been battling cancer. In a statement released by his family, "He spent his final days peacefully, with his family by his side. Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge in the same way."

NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said the nation lost a true pioneer, "NASA mourns the loss of this accomplished pilot and astronaut, a friend of all who seek to push the envelope of human potential. Whether his work was behind the scenes or on full view, his legacy will always be as one of the leaders who took America's first steps into the cosmos. And his spirit will go with us as we venture toward farther horizons."


In 1969, President Nixon (right) greets the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine after their mission to the moon. The Apollo 11 crew from left are Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
AP
When Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon and uttered the famous phrase, "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed," Collins was in orbit, 60 miles above, just as busy, and just as excited, telling the team back in Houston he was listening to communications with his comrades, and it was "fantastic."

Aldrin and Armstrong were on the lunar surface just under 22 hours. The world was transfixed. Seeing them bunny-hop along, take pictures and collect lunar samples during their single, short moonwalk. All the while, Collins circled the moon. Looking down at the barren lunar landscape and peering back at the Earth. "The thing I remember most is the view of planet Earth from a great distance," he said later. "Tiny. Very shiny. Blue and white. Bright. Beautiful. Serene and fragile."

Forgotten Astronaut

As he orbited, half the time he could talk to controllers but when he was on the back side of the moon, he was completely cut off. It was because of this part of the mission that some dubbed him the loneliest man in humanity. As he recalled in a 2016 NPR interview, he didn't think of it that way. He said, "The fact that I was ... out of communications, rather than that being a fear, that was a joy because I got Mission Control to shut up for a little while. Every once in a while."
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: President-Elect Bob Noel on April 28, 2021, 10:48:51 AM
 :( :( :( :( :(
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: EppyGA - White Christian Domestic Terrorist on April 28, 2021, 11:49:44 AM
Losing lots of heroes.  :'(
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Mase on April 28, 2021, 12:14:46 PM
http://vt.co/sci-tech/space/forgotten-apollo-11-astronaut-michael-collins-dies-aged-90
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Dweyant on April 28, 2021, 12:53:22 PM
Not many of the Apollo guys left....

-Dan
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: nddons on April 28, 2021, 01:24:01 PM
His role took some major stones. If Armstrong and Aldrin died, he would have had to pilot the CM back to a tiny pinpoint in space all alone, without support except for what he could hear on the radio from Mission Control.

Can you imagine all the training he had to have simulating returning alone? 
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Username on April 28, 2021, 02:28:59 PM
His role took some major stones. If Armstrong and Aldrin died, he would have had to pilot the CM back to a tiny pinpoint in space all alone, without support except for what he could hear on the radio from Mission Control.

Can you imagine all the training he had to have simulating returning alone?
Wow.  I never thought of that.  Major heartbreak returning alone.  Really makes you think of what could have happened.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: EppyGA - White Christian Domestic Terrorist on April 28, 2021, 02:55:32 PM
Do you think kids today can even comprehend what was accomplished during these missions, both Mercury and Apollo?
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: nddons on April 28, 2021, 03:11:17 PM
Do you think kids today can even comprehend what was accomplished during these missions, both Mercury and Apollo?
Not in the least. These people can’t leave their house and walk down the street without a fucking mask. They can’t comprehend flying a piston aircraft let alone doing such big, ballsy things.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Lucifer on April 28, 2021, 03:24:28 PM
Not in the least. These people can’t leave their house and walk down the street without a fucking mask. They can’t comprehend flying a piston aircraft let alone doing such big, ballsy things.

 When they changed the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon, the crew asked what were the chances of success, and were told "50-50".  They all agreed to go do it.

   
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: nddons on April 28, 2021, 03:36:51 PM
When they changed the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon, the crew asked what were the chances of success, and were told "50-50".  They all agreed to go do it.

 
Yep, and think about that. Leaving the earth’s gravitational field meant losing the security of being pulled back home.

Now Americans shit our show pants because of a virus with a 99.7% recovery rate.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Rush on April 29, 2021, 03:49:10 AM
Quote
Still, he said, he would look up and see the moon and think, " 'Oh my God! I've been there!' I was up there, you see. Kind of takes me by surprise despite all these years."

Can you imagine?   I remember standing outside looking at the moon when they were there, and being amazed that men were up there at that very moment.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: nddons on April 29, 2021, 04:32:25 AM
Can you imagine?   I remember standing outside looking at the moon when they were there, and being amazed that men were up there at that very moment.
I did that too!  I was 9 years old and went outside with my dad. I think half of the neighborhood was outside on that hot summer night doing the same thing.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Rush on April 29, 2021, 01:08:26 PM
I did that too!  I was 9 years old and went outside with my dad. I think half of the neighborhood was outside on that hot summer night doing the same thing.

I was 12.  It's a moment that will stick with me forever.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Old Crow on April 29, 2021, 03:24:20 PM
I was in Vietnam then.  Didn't know about it until we went back to base camp.  A few of us looking at the moon one evening I remember one guy saying "I wonder what their Per Diem pay is?"  We were half crocked then.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Mase on April 29, 2021, 10:43:26 PM
I was in Vietnam then. 

Me too.
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Lucifer on April 30, 2021, 04:25:54 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/gshIPYZ.jpg)
Title: Re: 'Forgotten Astronaut' Michael Collins Dies
Post by: Rush on April 30, 2021, 08:21:15 AM
I was in Vietnam then.  Didn't know about it until we went back to base camp.  A few of us looking at the moon one evening I remember one guy saying "I wonder what their Per Diem pay is?"  We were half crocked then.

Me too.

I've been listening to the Billings Gazette "Vietnam Voices" series on YouTube.  First time I have gotten a lot of inside views into what it was like for you guys.  Not just being there, but the whole experience beginning when you either signed up or were drafted, what your young plans were and how they were altered, or some wanted to go and going was their plan, to how their lives were affected afterwards all the way to the present. Some with PTSD, some with permanent physical damage, some who loved it and stayed in the military. Everyone's story is unique. From those who were simply air support with little traumatic aftereffects all the way to those taken POW for many years and everything in between. 

From little things (the bugs over there are HUGE) to big things (I saw my buddy kill an enemy who had surrendered and laid down arms and that affected me badly).  The stories are fascinating.  It's cathartic now for me to process all this with my old age perspective compared to my young, naive opinions about the war when I was 14 and hearing about the daily casualties on the evening news.

One thing sticks with me, one of the guys was asked, "What is the greatest lesson of the war you want people to know?" He responded, "When we go to war, it needs to be all out to win. We kept being constrained by people in D.C. We could have won that war in a week by bombing the hell out of NV but we were not allowed.  We couldn't do this, we couldn't do that, and that was very frustrating to us. When you aren't committed to win at all costs, that's why it dragged on so long and all the lives lost are for nothing."

That reconciles my 14 year old, "What the hell are we doing?" with my lifelong value of, "We need to fight communism or any tyranny".  Although lately I'm becoming more isolationist.