Michael Collins (astronaut) - Post-NASA Activities

Post-NASA Activities

After being released from a 21-day quarantine, the crew were feted across the United States and around the world as part of a 45-day "Giant Leap" tour. Prior to this trip NASA administrator Thomas O. Paine had approached Collins and said that Secretary of State William P. Rogers was interested in appointing Collins to the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. It was not until they returned to the U.S. in November that he sat down with Rogers and accepted the position on the urgings of Richard Nixon. In this position he was in charge of various areas including exhibitions, speeches and history.

A year later, Collins left this position to become director of the National Air and Space Museum. He held this position until 1978 when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. That same year he retired from the United States Air Force with the rank of Major General. In 1974 he attended the Harvard Business School and in 1980 he became Vice President of LTV Aerospace in Arlington, Virginia. He resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm, Michael Collins Associates.

Collins wrote an autobiography in 1974 entitled Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys. It is "generally regarded as the best account of what it is like to be an astronaut." He has also written Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space (1988), a history of the American space program, Mission to Mars (1990), a non-fiction book on human spaceflight to Mars, and Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places (1976). revised and re-released as Flying to the Moon : An Astronaut's Story (1994), a children's book on his experiences. Along with his writing, he has painted watercolors mostly relating to his Florida Everglades home, or aircraft that he flew; they are rarely space-related. Until recently he did not sign his paintings to avoid them increasing in price just because they had his autograph on them. Collins was a long-time Trustee of the National Geographic Society and presently serves as Trustee Emeritus.

He has been awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Congressional Gold Medal. Together with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, he received the Collier Trophy in 1969 and the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society in 1970. The International Astronomical Union honored him by naming an asteroid after him, 6471 Collins. Collins and his Apollo 11 crewmates were the 1999 recipients of the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution. Also, like the other two Apollo 11 crew members, he has a lunar crater named after him.

Collins lives with his wife, Pat, in Marco Island, Florida, and Avon, North Carolina. Carrying the Fire is dedicated to her.

Collins is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. He also contributed to the book of the same name. In 1989, some of his personal papers were transferred to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He had a small part as "Old Man" in the 2010 movie, Youth in Revolt.