Michael Collins (astronaut) Michael Collins (astronaut) Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930) (Major General, USAF, Retired) is an American former astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew into space twice. His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and undertook two extra-vehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). His second spaceflight was as the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11. While he stayed in orbit around the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left in the Lunar Module to
Buzz Aldrin Aldrin Middle School. The Aldrin crater on the Moon near the Apollo 11 landing site and Asteroid 6470 Aldrin are named in his honor. Aldrin has been married three times. His first marriage was in 1954 to Joan Archer, a Rutgers University and Columbia University alumna, and mother to his three children, James, Janice and Andrew. It ended in divorce in 1974. His second marriage was to Beverly Van Zile, whom he married in 1975 and divorced in 1978. His third to Lois Driggs Cannon, whom he married in 1988. Their divorce was finalized on December 28, 2012. The settlement