Michael Collins was born on October 30, 1930, in Rome, Italy. He later moved to Washington, D.C., where he graduated from St. Albans School. In 1952, he attended college at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York where he earned a bachelor's degree.

Collins served as a fighter pilot and an experimental test pilot at the Air Force Flight Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. From 1959 to1963 he logged more than 4,200 hours of flight time. In October 1963, Collins became one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA. He served as a pilot on the three-day Gemini X mission, launched July 18, 1966. During this mission, he set a world altitude record and became the nations third spacewalker while completing two extravehicular activities (EVAs).

His second flight was as Command Module pilot of the historic Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. He remained in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon. His role in the Apollo mission earned him many awards and accolades, including the Presidential Medal for Freedom in 1969.

In January 1970, Collins left NASA to become the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A year later he joined the Smithsonian Institution as the Director of the National Air and Space Museum, where he remained for seven years. While in this position, he was responsible for the construction of the new museum building, which opened to the public in July 1976, ahead of schedule and below its budgeted cost. In April 1978, Collins became Under Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1980, he became the Vice President of the LTV Aerospace and Defense Company, resigning in 1985 to start his own firm. Collins has completed two spaceflights, logging 266 hours in space, of which 1 hour and 27 minutes was spent in EVA.

Collins has written about his experiences in the space program in several books, including "Carrying the Fire" and a children's book, "Flying to the Moon and other Strange Places." In 1988, he wrote "Liftoff: the Story of Americas Adventure in Space." Today he is an aerospace consultant and writer.

Source: NASA