Talk:Michael Collins (astronaut)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Michael Collins (astronaut) article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Biography     (Rated B-Class) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. Biography Portal B This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] Military history WikiProject     (Rated B-Class) This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions. B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: criterion met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met Associated task forces (general topics): Military aviation task force Military biography task force Associated task forces (nations and regions): United States military history task force Aviation WikiProject     (Rated Start-Class) This article is within the scope of the Aviation WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions. Aviation Portal Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. Additional information and associated projects or task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no This article is not currently associated with a task force. To tag it for one or more task forces, please add the task force codes from the template instructions to the template call.

Michael Collins (astronaut) has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

Contents 1 First Irishman in Space? 2 Air Force 3 F-86 ejection 4 Children 5 First director of National Air & Space Museum?

[edit] First Irishman in Space?

Hi all. The Irish government claim[[1] that Michael Collins was the first Irishman in space. While his name would certainly seem to back this up, does anyone have any info on whether he held or was eligible to hold an Irish passport? To be eligible for an Irish passport in 1930, when Collins was born, you must have either been born in Ireland (Free State or Northern) or have one grandparent who was. If he can be considered the first Irishman in space, that would definitely be worth putting in the article. eiscir 09:48, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Ireland does have a tradition of a highly expansive eligibility for citizenship, and Collins may have indeed been eligible, but not simply because his name is the same as the Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. By that logic, anyone with a certain Spanish last name and certain Gaelicized English first name would be eligible, irrespective of nationality, race, familiarity or connection to Ireland, and so on. Accordingly, I've edited the trivia to omit this rather nonsensical qualifier. Maybe someone could add in trivia, 'in addition to his nominal Irish citizenship he has the same name as famous Irish' etc. instead.Arrogant Papist

According to the wikipedia article on his father, Major General James Lawton Collins, Michael's grandfather Jeremiah Bernard Collins was born in Ireland. This would make Michael eligible for registration in the Foreign Births Entry Book and thus eligible for Irish citizenship. He would need merely to show proof of entitlement (birth certificates, etc.) and pay a fee (around $150-$200) to claim his citizenship. As far as I know, he has not claimed Irish citizenship, though it is his right to do so. Being a General Officer is the U.S. military, as well as an astronaut, maintaining dual citizenship might have prevented him from gaining the necessary security clearances for those positions. Windyjarhead (talk) 21:35, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Air Force

The phrase Air Force is ALWAYS capitalized when referring to the USAF. Can this be more clear? "USAF" = "United States Air Force" - always capitalized, too, as are United States Army, United States Navy, United Stated Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard. These are all distinguished organizations, and well-deserving of the honor. Dale A. Wood —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dale101usa (talk • contribs)

[edit] F-86 ejection

Collins' bio does not mention a backseater ejecting, only his wingman, in another plane, yelling over the radio "You're on fire. Get out, get out!" This should be corrected.

[edit] Children

Regrettably, Michael Collins son Michael Jnr died some years ago. A small amendment is perhaps needed on this point. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MartinPUK (talk • contribs) 20:39, 25 July 2007 (UTC).

[edit] First director of National Air & Space Museum?

I've deleted that he was first director of the NASM, on two different bases.

First, "National Air and Space Museum" is just a new name for the "National Air Museum" that had been around since 1946. "The National Air Museum (NAM) was created as a separate bureau of the Smithsonian Institution by an Act of Congress on 12 August 1946" [2]; "1946: Public Law [79-722], signed by President Harry S. Truman, establishes the National Air Museum as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution." [3]. It's at best misleading to say that Collins was its first director; at most, he was first director once it was renamed.

But that doesn't even sound right. The name change from NAM to NASM was in 1966. "1966: Public Law 89-509, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, amends the original Air Museum legislation to include the field of space flight." [4]; "In July 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed into law a bill authorizing construction of a new building for the newly-renamed National Air and Space Museum (NASM)." [5]. Even under we mean the first director who served the museum under its new name, that would have been whoever was director in 1966. In 1966 Collins was busy with Gemini 10. He wasn't appointed NASM director until 1971. "1971: Michael Collins, former Apollo 11 astronaut, is named director of the National Air and Space Museum." [6].

Now, maybe if the prior director was appointed prior to 1966 and held the position up until Collins was appointed in 1971, it would be accurate to say that Collins was the first person to be appointed director of the museum since it changed names; but that's just not that big of a deal.

All the cites above are to the Smithsonian Institution's regular web site or its archives; as opposed to some other less authoritative source. TJRC (talk) 00:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

update: S. Paul Johnston, held the position of director from 1964 to 1969, and was technically the first director of NASM. On Johnston's resignation Frank A. Taylor was appointed acting director, a position he held until Collins was appointed in 1971. See [7]. So, yeah, Collins was technically the first person to be appointed as Director of the National Air and Space Museum, but not the first to hold that title. Johnston was the first Director of the National Air and Space Museum, but he was appointed as Director of the National Air Museum, and became director of NASM when the name changed. So this seems a silly and misleading thing to note as being a first. TJRC (talk) 00:57, 27 March 2008 (UTC)