Mr. Collins was originally assigned to be command module pilot of Apollo 8, which became the first mission to orbit (but not land on) the moon.
He could have had a third spaceflight as commander of Apollo 17. But even before Apollo 11 launched, he decided he wanted to leave the program because life as an astronaut took him away from his family. He told Deke Slayton of the astronaut office, who had been one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, “If everything goes exactly as planned, I’m out of here.”
After Mr. Collins left NASA in 1970, he served as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and then director of the National Air and Space Museum, overseeing the construction of the current building on the National Mall in Washington.
Picture Credit : Google
