Carrying the Fire Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Fourteen

This was the third group of astronauts selected by NASA. They never received a cool nickname that stayed with them. The others selected with Collins were: Buzz Aldrin, Bill Anders, Charley Bassett, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Roger Chaffee, Walter Cunningham, Donn Eisele, Ted Freeman, Dick Gordon, Rusty Schweickart, David Scott, and C. C. Williams. Bassett, Chaffee, Freeman, and Williams died before they had a chance to fly in space.

Answer: Corned beef sandwich

Unbeknown to NASA, Wally Schirra had the sandwich put in a pocket in John Young's spacesuit. Doctors claimed it violated medical protocols and engineers claimed the crumbs could gum up machinery. Members of Congress charged that NASA had lost of control of its astronauts. Young did not report on how the sandwich tasted in space.

Answer: Backup Pilot for Gemini 7

He and Ed White were assigned as the backup crew for Frank Borman and Jim Lovell's 14 day Gemini 7 flight. Backup crews had the same training as the primary crew and needed to be ready to fly up to the last few days before launch.

Answer: Gemini 10

He and John Young had a successful 3 day mission aboard Gemini 10. Collins performed two space walks, they docked with their Agena target vehicle, and used the Agena engine to reach an altitude of 450 miles which was a record at that time.

Answer: John Young

There were two men on each Gemini flight, John Young was the Commander and Collins was the Pilot. Young flew 6 missions during his career as an astronaut: 2 Gemini, 2 Apollo, and 2 Space Shuttle. Since he also piloted the Lunar module during Apollo 16, he holds the distinction of the only person to have flown four different kinds of spacecraft.

Answer: Frank Borman & Bill Anders

Collins developed a medical condition that required surgery and prevented him from flying with Borman and Anders on Apollo 8. Jim Lovell was his replacement.

Answer: Apollo 9

James McDivitt, Rusty Schweickart, and David Scott were supposed to fly Apollo 8 and test the Lunar Module in low Earth orbit. Production problems with the LM pushed the flight back and NASA decided to fly a Lunar Orbiting mission to keep up public interest. McDivitt turned down the opportunity so it was offered to the crew of Apollo 9, which was supposed to test the Lunar Module in High Earth Orbit. Borman accepted the mission so the flight numbers were swapped. Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan ended up losing out on the deal, because of the great success McDivitt's crew had Borman's crew would have probably skipped the High Earth Orbit test and flown the dress rehersal for the landing. Stafford and Cernan would have been the first men to land on the moon in Apollo 10.

Answer: He doesn't remember

Most likely it was Deke Slayton or Neil Armstrong, but he can't remember who told him the most important message of his life.

Answer: Command Module Pilot

He was the lone person to orbit the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin explored the lunar surface.

Answer: Commander

As the Commander he was able to make the decision as to who would be the first man to walk on the moon. Of course he chose himself - wouldn't you have done so?

Answer: Lunar Module Pilot

The original flight plans called for the Lunar Module Pilot to be the first to walk on the moon. Armstrong's decision to go first set a precedent that all Commanders followed for the other lunar missions.

Answer: Jim Lovell

Lovell was the backup Commander for Apollo 11, he was the first one to suggest the Eagle. Using a picture from National Geographic as a model, Mike Collins sketched the original design where the eagle held the olive branch in its beak and the talons extended for landing on the moon. NASA decided the talons looked too threatening so the olive branch was moved to its feet. Collins remarked that he hoped the eagle dropped the branch before it landed.

Answer: Columbia

All of these were names assigned to Command Modules during Apollo missions. Charlie Brown was used for Apollo 10, America for Apollo 17, and Gumdrop on Apollo 9.

Answer: A NASA administrator

The naming of the Command Module was brought up during a phone call with Julian Scheer who was the NASA's Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. Scheer had been kicking around the idea of the name Columbia with other administrators in Washington and mentioned it during the call regarding other matters. Collins, who was struggling for a name, wasn't impressed with Columbia at first but it grew on him.

Answer: Eagle

The name came from Jim Lovell's idea to put an Eagle on the Flight Patch. All of these were names assigned to Lunar Modules during Apollo missions. Snoopy was used for Apollo 10, Falcon for Apollo 15, and Challenger on Apollo 17.

Answer: Steering an aircraft carrier with an outboard motor

The Command and Service Module (CSM) together weighed approx. 66,000 pounds (30,000 kg). During the trip to the moon the Lunar Module, which weighed 32,000 lbs (15,000 kg), was also attached. There were 28 100lb (450 N)thrusters on the CSM to maneuver the spacecraft. Controlling almost 100,000 lbs of equipment with 100 lb thrusters was a slow and tedious process.

Answer: A plaque with a mounted fish

It was a tradition for the flight crew to give Guenter a gift on the day of the launch. Guenter fancied himself as a fisherman, so Collins had a minnow mounted on a plaque and had it inscribed "Guenter's Trophy Trout".

Answer: 48 minutes

While Armstrong and Aldrin were on the lunar surface, Collins was alone in orbit. For 48 minutes during each orbit he had no radio contact with the Earth or the Lunar Module making him the loneliest man in the universe, even lonelier than the Maytag repairman.

Answer: A bunch of technical gibberish

From unedited recordings, Buzz Aldrin was reading items off a check list to shut down the Main Engine. A moment before landing Buzz says "Contact Light!" and the next phrase heard is "Okay, engine stop" which would be the first words spoken on the moon, however NASA transcripts show Armstrong saying "Shutdown" after "Contact Light" but it doesn't appear on the recordings.

After 15 seconds of technical commands from Aldrin that Armstrong replies to, the capcom in Houston says "We copy you down Eagle" and finally Armstrong says the famous words "Houston, Tranquility base here ..."

Answer: To moderate temperatures

Temperatures reached 200 degrees on the sunlit side of the spacecraft and dropped to -200 in the shade. The spacecraft was rolled at a rate of about once an hour to prevent the fluids in the Service Modules from boiling and freezing. During a demonstration of the roll using models, someone remarked that the spacecraft looked like a chicken on a bar-b-que spit, the name stuck.

Answer: Watch his crewmates walk on the moon

NASA didn't give him the ability to receive the TV signals. He was one of the few Americans who could not watch it live.

Answer: Return to Earth alone

There was no backup Lunar Module, the Command Module could not land on the moon, and the astronauts did not have the resources to wait for a rescue mission. Procedures had been developed and rehearsed that would allow one man to fly home alone. No one said space flight didn't have a dark side to it.

Answer: The spacecraft flipped nose over when it landed

Collins had bet Armstrong that he would keep the heat shield down when they landed. They hit the ocean harder than planned, which prevented Collins and Aldrin from releasing the parachutes fast enough to keep the spacecraft from tipping over.

Answer: He never walked on the moon.

Collins retired from the space program after the Apollo 11 flight, and since he was the Command Module Pilot he did not land on the moon's surface. Buzz Aldrin was second, David Scott was seventh, and Gene Cernan on Apollo 17 was the last. An interesting point is that if Collins had stayed in the space program he probably would have been the Commander of Apollo 17 and been the last man to walk on the moon.

Answer: 2

Collins flew as the Pilot of Gemini 10 with John Young and on Apollo 11. Apollo 11 was the last space flight for Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, all three of them flew only two space missions.