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Author Topic:   The Michael Collins Papers (Virginia Tech)
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-05-2017 11:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From Virginia Tech Special Collections' technical archivist Adrienne Serra:
Occasionally I get the chance to work with something in our collections that give me shivers, and the notebooks that astronaut Michael Collins used on the NASA Gemini and Apollo spaceflight missions definitely fall into that category. I mean, it isn't often that you get to handle and scan items that have actually been in space! You can see the online collection here.

Michael Collins is probably most famous for his role as the command module pilot on the Apollo 11 Mission, the first manned mission to land on the lunar surface. Collins orbited the moon while commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin descended to its surface.

Above: Excerpt from Collins' training notebook for the Apollo 11 Mission, diagramming his lunar landing flight maneuver. See the notebook.

In 1989, Virginia Tech Special Collections was honored to receive his papers, which cover Collins' Air Force career, training at the U.S. Test Pilot School and Experimental Flight Center, participation in NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs, and tenure at the State Department and the National Air and Space Museum. While this collection has been heavily used by students and researchers for many years, it wasn't until this past summer and fall of 2016 that we were able to get a large portion of it scanned and ready to go online. I'm really excited to get some of these items out there for the wider world to see.

Before the Apollo missions, Collins was also involved in the Gemini missions, serving as pilot of Gemini 10, launched July 18, 1966. During this mission, Collins and commander John Young set a new orbital altitude record and completed a successful rendezvous with a separate orbiting space vehicle, paving the way for modern day space vehicle maneuvers such as docking with the International Space Station. Another notable achievement from this mission was the successful completion of two spacewalks by Collins. Collins was the was fourth person ever to perform a spacewalk (referred to by NASA as an EVA, or Extravehicular Activity), and the first person to ever perform more than one.

After retiring from the NASA astronaut program in 1970, Collins worked for the US State Department and the Smithsonian Institute, serving as the first director of the National Air and Space Museum. The collection also includes many items related to his later work, as well as many items sent to him by adoring fans and space enthusiasts from around the world. What's now online is just a portion of the collection, hopefully we'll be able to get more up soon. You can see the finding aid for the collection here.

Headshot
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Posts: 864
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 03-05-2017 03:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I just did a quick run through of one of Collins' Gemini 10 notebooks and must say that Virginia Tech did a real nice job of scanning. I am so glad that these documents have been preserved digitally.

Colonel McCauley
unregistered
posted 03-24-2017 03:33 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is an impressive find!

In Collins' "Gemini 10 Notebook," the Aviation Week & Space Technology article the scans are superb. However, p.76-79 stuck together in the page feeder, so those pages are missing. I was unable to find a direct link to the scanner to ask if this can be corrected.

kyra
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Posts: 583
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 03-27-2017 07:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for kyra   Click Here to Email kyra     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am eagerly awaiting the scan of Collins' Air Force Survival Manual that contains the advice "Don't eat toads."

The Gemini 10 Operations Handbook is a super treat and it also contains the original source of the long lost Rendezvous Book that was auctioned eight years ago. It seems they did a major reorganization of that between June 22nd and launch. A foldout in the Mission Report fills in a few blanks figuratively and literally.

The Apollo 11 CMP Solo Book seems to have vanished into thin air, but the A11 G&C Operations C/L is at the Smithsonian.

One day soon, we will be able to access all the documents referenced in Carrying the Fire. Thanks to the scanner at Virginia Tech!

kyra
Member

Posts: 583
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 03-28-2017 12:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for kyra   Click Here to Email kyra     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Relating to these papers, I noticed a big difference in training methodologies between Gemini and Apollo. During Gemini, the training seemed broader in scope and more thorough with more lectures and many handouts to study. For Apollo, the training looks more specific to the role on the mission and more is left to the astronaut to figure out by calling specialists. Collins seemed immersed in GNC DSKY Collossus-land for the first half of 1969.

Does this seem to reflect what various Gemini and Apollo astronauts have said? I recall Collins writing there was an attitude among Apollo trainers (paraphrased) "This is Apollo, forget how we did anything on Gemini" when a comparison was raised.

space1
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Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 03-28-2017 07:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for space1   Click Here to Email space1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The scanned Gemini 10 Operations Handbook Section 2 (Controls and Displays) also includes Section 3 (Spacecraft Operation Procedures) beginning on page 201 of file 2 of 3 and concluding with all of file 3 of 3.

In "Carrying the Fire" I recall Collins mentioning that the Apollo right hand did not know what the Gemini left hand was doing. He mentioned this in the context of the 4-gimbal Gemini attitude reference vs. the Apollo weight-saving 3-gimbal design, which was vulnerable to gimbal lock.

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