Michael Collins, Major General

The turning point for Michael Collins in his decision to become an astronaut was the Mercury Atlas 6 flight of John Glenn on February 20, 1962, and the thought of being able to circle the Earth in 90 minutes. Space programMichael Collins suiting up for the Apollo 11 flight. Geology was devoted 58 hours of this, something that Collins could not understand, and never became too interested in. After this basic training, the third group were assigned specializations, with Collins receiving his first choice of pressure suits and EVA. In late June 1965, Collins received his first crew assignment, the backup pilot for Gemini 7. After the successful completion of 7, Collins was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10 with John Young, with White moving onto Project Apollo. The training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies of orbital rendezvous, controlling the Agena and for Collins, EVA. For what was to be only the fourth ever EVA, underwater training was not undertaken, mostly because Collins just didn't have the time.