Apollo 11: Scheduled Hold at T-9 hours, 15 July 1969 11:00 AM CDT
This is the second of eleven geocaches being placed in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. These caches are being scheduled to publish at 50 years to the minute after the event each one represents. The city where they are placed has the distinction of sharing its name with the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia.
A scheduled hold is a preplanned pause in the countdown sequence as opposed to an unplanned pause due to some discovered problem. While the countdown is on hold, let us look at our first member of the crew:
Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot, Michael Collins.
Born on 31 October 1930 in Rome, Italy, as the second son of a career United States Army officer, Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) following which he joined the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot. Having later served as a military test pilot, Collins was selected as a member of the third group of astronauts in 1963. His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10 during which he became the seventeenth American in space, the third American to perform a spacewalk, and the first person ever to perform more than one spacewalk. Apollo 11 was his second and final spaceflight. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon, which he orbited 30 times.
Retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins went on to serve briefly in the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. He then spent several years as the director of the National Air and Space Museum and played an instrumental role in the construction of a dedicated museum building. He went on to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980 he moved into the private sector, eventually starting his own consulting firm. Collins has written several books on the subject of space flight.
This geocache has been placed in accordance with the published guidelines of Columbia Parks & Recreation Department, Lida M. Gochenour, Administrative Supervisor.