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MICHAEL COLLINS - Typed Letter Signed Typed letter an individual to a lecture at the National Air and Space Museum. On Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum letterhead, measured 8" X 10" and is dated January 16, 1978. Condition: Normal mailing folds. Fine condition. "Dear Ms. Kertes, To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the launching of the first American earth satellite, the National Air and Space Museum is presenting a Wernher von Braun Memorial Lecture. Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, former Associate Director of Science at the Marshall Space Flight Center, will be the speaker. The program begins at 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 31 in the National Air and Space Museum's Theater. Prior to the lecture, we would be delighted to have you join us for dinner in the Museum's Art Gallery. Cocktails will be served at 6:00 p.m. followed by a buffet dinner. Please enter the Museum through the doors on Independence Avenue, and check in at the Security Desk where you will be directed to the Art Gallery. Looking forward to hearing from you, and I hope that you can be with us on January 31. Sincerely, (signed) Michael Collins, Director". As pilot on the 3-day Gemini X mission, launched July 18, 1966, Collins shared with command pilot John Young in the accomplishments of that record-setting flight. These accomplishments included a successful rendezvous and docking with a separately launched Agena target vehicle and, using the power of the Agena, maneuvering the Gemini spacecraft into another orbit for a rendezvous with a second, passive Agena. Collins' skillful performance in completing two periods of extravehicular activity included the recovery of a micrometeorite detection experiment from the passive Agena. Gemini X attained an apogee of approximately 475 statute miles and traveled a distance of 1,275,091 statute miles--after which splashdown occurred in the West Atlantic, 529 miles east of Cape Kennedy. The spacecraft landed 2.6 miles from the USS GUADALCANAL and became the second spacecraft in the Gemini program to land within eye and camera range of the prime recovery ship. Collins served as command module pilot on Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969--the first lunar landing mission. He remained aboard the command module ,Columbia, on station in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong, spacecraft commander, and Edwin Aldrin, lunar module pilot, descended to the lunar surface in their lunar module Eagle. Collins performed the final re-docking maneuvers following a successful lunar orbit rendezvous which was initiated by Armstrong and Aldrin from within the Eagle after their ascent from the lunar surface. Among the accomplishments of the Apollo 11 mission were collection of lunar surface samples for return to earth, deployment of lunar surface experiments, and an extensive evaluation of the life supporting extravehicular mobility unit worn by astronauts. Collins completed two space flights, logging 266 hours in space--of which 1 hour and 27 minutes was spent in EVA. He left NASA in January 1970, and is Director of the National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Seller Inventory # 002776
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