The first name of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins was Michael.
Collins was born Michael Collins on October 31, 1930, in Rome, Italy, where his father was serving as a U.S. Army military attaché. He was the son of Major General James Lawton Collins and grew up in several places as his father received military postings. The astronaut’s name is sometimes confused with that of the Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, but they were different historical figures.
The American Michael Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1952, became a U.S. Air Force fighter and test pilot, and joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1963. He first flew in space on Gemini 10 in 1966.
On Apollo 11 in 1969, Collins piloted the command module Columbia while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the lunar module Eagle. Collins therefore orbited the Moon but did not walk on its surface. After leaving NASA, he directed the National Air and Space Museum and wrote the memoir Carrying the Fire.