title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Collins attended St. Albans School and graduated in 1948. His mother wanted him to enter the diplomatic service, but he decided to follow his father, two uncles, brother, and cousin into the armed services. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from which his father and his older brother had graduated in 1907 and 1939 respectively. He graduated on June 3, 1952, with a Bachelor of Science degree in military science, finishing 185th of 527 cadets in the class, which included future fellow astronaut Ed White.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins' decision to join the United States Air Force (USAF) was motivated by both the wonder of what the next fifty years might bring in aeronautics, and to avoid accusations of nepotism had he joined the Army—where his brother was already a colonel, his father had reached the rank of major general and his uncle, General J. Lawton Collins (1896–1987), was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. The Air Force Academy, still under construction, would not graduate its first class for several years. In the interim, graduates of the Military Academy were eligible for Air Force commissions. Promotion was slower in the Air Force than in the Army, due to the large number of young officers who had been commissioned and promoted during World War II.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins began basic flight training in the T-6 Texan at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi, in August 1952, then moved on to San Marcos Air Force Base in Texas to learn instrument and formation flying, and finally to James Connally Air Force Base in Waco, Texas, for training in jet aircraft. Flying came easily to him, and unlike many of his colleagues, he had little fear of failure. He was awarded his wings upon completion of the course at Waco, and in September 1953, he was chosen for advanced day-fighter training at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, flying F-86 Sabres. The training was dangerous; eleven people were killed in accidents during the 22 weeks he was there.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: This was followed by an assignment in January 1954 to the 21st Fighter-Bomber Wing at George Air Force Base, California, where he learned ground attack and nuclear weapons delivery techniques in the F-86. He moved with the 21st to Chambley-Bussières Air Base, France, in December 1954. He won first prize in a 1956 gunnery competition. During a NATO exercise that year, he was forced to eject from an F-86, near Chaumont-Semoutiers AB, after a fire started aft of the cockpit.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins met his future wife, Patricia Mary Finnegan from Boston, Massachusetts, in an officers' mess. A graduate of Emmanuel College, where she majored in English, she was a social worker, dealing mainly with single mothers. To see more of the world, she was working for the Air Force service club. After getting engaged, they had to overcome a difference in religion. Collins was nominally Episcopalian, while Finnegan came from a staunchly Roman Catholic family. After seeking permission to marry from Finnegan's father, and delaying their wedding when Collins was redeployed to West Germany during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, they married in 1957. They had a daughter, actress Kate Collins, in 1959, a second daughter, Ann, in 1961 and a son, Michael, in 1963.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: After Collins returned to the United States in late 1957, he attended an aircraft maintenance officer course at Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois. He would later describe this school as "dismal" in his autobiography; he found the classwork boring, flying time scarce, and the equipment outdated. Upon completing the course, he commanded a Mobile Training Detachment (MTD) and traveled to air bases around the world. The detachment trained mechanics on the servicing of new aircraft, and pilots how to fly them. He later became the first commander of a Field Training Detachment (FTD 523) back at Nellis AFB, which was a similar kind of unit, except that the students traveled to him.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins' MTD posting allowed him to accumulate over 1,500 flying hours, the minimum required for admission to the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. His application was successful, and on August 29, 1960, he became a member of Class 60C, which included Frank Borman, Jim Irwin and Tom Stafford, who later became astronauts. Military test pilot instruction started with the North American T-28 Trojan, and proceeded through the high performance F-86 Sabre, B-57 Canberra, T-33 Shooting Star, and the F-104 Starfighter. Collins was a heavy smoker, but quit in 1962 after suffering a particularly bad hangover. The next day, he spent what he described as the worst four hours of his life in the co-pilot's seat of a B-52 Stratofortress while going through the initial stages of nicotine withdrawal.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The inspiration for Collins in his decision to become a NASA astronaut was the Mercury Atlas 6 flight of John Glenn on February 20, 1962, and the thought of being able to circle the Earth in 90 minutes. Collins applied for the second group of astronauts that year. To raise the numbers of Air Force pilots selected, the Air Force sent their best applicants to a "charm school". Medical and psychiatric examinations at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and interviews at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston followed. In mid-September, he found out he had not been accepted. It was a blow even though he did not expect to be selected. Collins rated the second group of nine as better than the Mercury Seven who preceded them, or the five groups that followed, including his own.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: That year the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School became the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), as the Air Force tried to enter into space research through the X-15 and X-20 programs. Collins applied for a new postgraduate course offered into the basics of spaceflight. He was accepted into the third class on October 22, 1962. Other students in his eleven-member class included three future astronauts: Charles Bassett, Edward Givens and Joe Engle. Along with classwork, they also flew up to about in F-104 Starfighters. As they passed through the top of their arc, they would experience a brief period of weightlessness. On finishing this course he returned to fighter operations in May 1963.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: At the start of June, NASA once again called for astronaut applications. Collins went through the same process as with his first application, though he did not take the psychiatric evaluation. He was at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, on October 14 when Deke Slayton, the Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA, called and asked if he was still interested in becoming an astronaut. Charles Bassett was also accepted. By this time Collins had flown over 3,000 hours, of which 2,700 were in jet aircraft.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Compared with the first two groups of astronauts, the third group of fourteen astronauts, which included Collins, was younger, with an average age of 31—the first two groups had an average age of 34.5 and 32.5 at their time of selection—and was better educated, with an average of 5.6 years of tertiary education; but they had fewer flying hours—2,300 on average compared with 3,500 and 2,800 for the first two groups, and only eight of the fourteen were test pilots. Of the thirty astronauts selected in the first three groups, only Collins and his third group colleague William Anders were born outside the United States, and Collins was the only one with an older brother; all the rest were the eldest or only sons in their families. Training began with a 240-hour course on the basics of spaceflight. Fifty-eight hours of this was devoted to geology, something Collins did not readily understand and in which he never became very interested. At the end, Alan Shepard, the Chief of the Astronaut Office, asked the fourteen to rank their fellow astronauts in the order they would want to fly with them in space. Collins picked David Scott in the number one position.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: After this basic training, the third group was assigned specializations. Collins received his first choice: pressure suits and extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). His job was to monitor development and act as a liaison between the Astronaut Office and contractors. He was disturbed by the secretive planning of Ed White's EVA on Gemini 4, because he was not involved despite being the person with the greatest knowledge of the subject.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: In late June 1965, Collins received his first crew assignment: the backup pilot for Gemini 7, with his West Point classmate Ed White named as the backup mission commander. Collins was the first of the fourteen to receive a crew assignment, but the first to fly was Scott on Gemini 8, and Charles Bassett was assigned to Gemini 9. Under the system of crew rotation established by Slayton, being on the backup crew of Gemini7 set Collins up to pilot Gemini 10. Gemini7 was commanded by Borman, whom Collins knew well from their days at Edwards, with Jim Lovell as the pilot. Collins made a point of providing a daily briefing to their wives, Susan Borman and Marilyn Lovell, on the progress of the two-week Gemini7 mission.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: After the successful completion of Gemini7 on January 24, 1966, Collins was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10, but with John Young as mission commander, as White moved on to the Apollo program. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin were designated as the backup commander and pilot respectively. The arrangements were disturbed on February 28 by the deaths of the Gemini9 crew, Charles Bassett and Elliot See, in the 1966 NASA T-38 crash. They were replaced on Gemini9 by their backups, Stafford and Gene Cernan. Cernan was the second of the fourteen to fly in space. Lovell and Aldrin became their backups, and Alan Bean and C.C. Williams took their place as the Gemini 10 backup crew. Collins would be the seventeenth American, and third member of his group, to fly in space.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Training for Gemini 10 was interrupted in March when Slayton diverted Young, Collins and Williams to represent their respective services on a panel to select another group of astronauts, along with himself, Shepard, spacecraft designer Max Faget, and astronaut training officer Warren J. North. Young protested the loss of a week's training to no avail. Applying strict criteria for age, flying experience and education reduced the number of applicants to 35. The panel interviewed each for an hour, and rated nineteen as qualified. Collins was surprised when Slayton elected to take them all. Slayton later admitted that he too had doubts; he already had enough astronauts for Project Apollo as far as the first Moon landing, but post-Apollo plans were for up to 30 missions. Such a large intake therefore seemed prudent. Ten of the nineteen had test pilot experience, and seven were graduates of the ARPS.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Fifteen scientific experiments were carried on Gemini 10—more than any other Gemini mission except the two-week-long Gemini 7. After Gemini 9's EVA ran into problems, the remaining Gemini objectives had to be completed on the last three flights. While the overall number of objectives increased, the difficulty of Collins' EVA was scaled significantly back. There was no backpack or astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU), as there had been on Gemini 8.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Their three-day mission called for them to rendezvous with two Agena Target Vehicles, undertake two EVAs, and perform 15 different experiments. The training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies of orbital rendezvous, controlling the Agena and, for Collins, the EVA. For what was to be the fourth ever EVA, underwater training was not performed, mostly because Collins did not have the time. To train to use the nitrogen gun he would use for propulsion, a smooth metal surface about the size of a boxing ring was set up. He would stand on a circular pad that used gas jets to raise itself off the surface. Using the nitrogen gun he would practice propelling himself across the "slippery table".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Gemini 10 lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral at 05:20 local time on July 18, 1966. Upon reaching orbit, it was about behind the Agena target vehicle, which had been launched 100 minutes earlier. A rendezvous was achieved on Gemini 10's fourth orbit at 10:43, followed by docking at 11:13. The mission plan called for multiple dockings with the Agena target, but an error by Collins in using the sextant caused them to burn valuable propellant, resulting in Mission Control calling off this objective to conserve propellant. Once docked, the Agena 10 propulsion system was activated to boost the astronauts to a new altitude record, above the Earth, breaking the previous record of set by Voskhod 2.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: A second burn of the Agena 10 engine at 03:58 on July 19 put them into the same orbit as Agena8, which had been launched for the Gemini8 mission on March 16. For his first EVA Collins did not leave the Gemini capsule, but stood up through the hatch with an ultraviolet camera. After he took the ultraviolet photos, Collins took photos of a plate they brought with them. They were used to compare photos taken in space with those taken in a laboratory. In his biography he said he felt at that moment like a Roman god riding the skies in his chariot.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The EVA started on the dark side of the Earth so Collins could take photos of the Milky Way. Collins' and Young's eyes began to water, forcing an early end to the EVA. Lithium hydroxide, which was normally used to remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the cabin, had accidentally been fed into the astronauts' space suits. The compressor causing the problem was switched off, and a high oxygen flow was used to purge the environmental control system.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Prior to Collins' second EVA, the Agena 10 spacecraft was jettisoned. Young positioned the capsule close enough to Agena8 for Collins to get to it while attached to his umbilical. Collins became the first person to perform two spacewalks in the same mission. He found it took much longer to complete tasks than he expected, something Cernan also experienced during his spacewalk on Gemini 9. He removed a micrometeorite experiment from the exterior of the spacecraft, and configured his nitrogen maneuvering thruster. Collins had difficulty reentering the spacecraft, and needed Young to pull him back in with the umbilical.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The duo activated the retrorockets on their 43rd orbit, and they splashed down in the Atlantic at 04:06 on July 21, from the recovery vessel, the amphibious assault ship , and were picked up by helicopter. Collins and Young completed nearly all the major objectives of the flight. The docking practice and the landmark measurement experiment were cancelled in order to conserve propellant, and the micrometeorite collector was lost when it drifted out of the spacecraft.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Shortly after Gemini 10, Collins was assigned to the backup crew for the second crewed Apollo flight, with Borman as commander (CDR), Stafford as command module pilot (CMP), and Collins as lunar module pilot (LMP). Along with learning the new Apollo command and service module (CSM) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM), Collins received helicopter training, as these were thought to be the best way to simulate the landing approach of the LM. After the completion of Project Gemini, it was decided to cancel the Apollo2 flight, since it would just repeat the Apollo 1 flight. Stafford was given his own crew, and Anders was assigned to Borman's crew. Slayton had decided an Apollo mission commander should be an experienced astronaut who had already flown a mission, and that on flights with a LM, the CMP should also have some spaceflight experience, something Anders did not yet have, since the CMP would have to fly the CM alone. Collins was therefore moved to the CMP position on the Apollo8 prime crew, and Anders became the LMP. The practice became that the CMP would be the next most senior member of the crew, and that they would go on to command later Apollo flights.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Staff meetings were always held on Fridays in the Astronaut Office, and it was here that Collins found himself on January 27, 1967. Don Gregory was running the meeting in the absence of Shepard and so it was he who answered the red phone to be informed there had been a fire in the Apollo 1 CM, and that the three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were dead. When the enormity of the situation was ascertained, it fell on Collins to go to the Chaffee household to inform Martha Chaffee that her husband had died. The Astronaut Office had learned to be proactive in informing astronauts' families of a death quickly, because of the death of Theodore Freeman in an aircraft crash in 1964, when a newspaper reporter was the first to his house.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins and Scott were sent by NASA to the Paris Air Show in May 1967. There they met cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and Konstantin Feoktistov, with whom they drank vodka on the Soviets' Tupolev Tu-134. Collins found it interesting that some cosmonauts were doing helicopter training like their American counterparts, and Belyayev said he hoped to make a circumlunar flight soon. The astronauts' wives had accompanied them on the trip, and Collins and his wife Pat were compelled by NASA and their friends to travel to Metz, where they had been married ten years before. There, they found a third wedding ceremony had been arranged for them (ten years previously they had already had civil and religious ceremonies), so they could renew their vows.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: During 1968, Collins noticed his legs were not working as they should, first during handball games, then as he walked down stairs. His knee would almost give way, and his left leg had unusual sensations when in hot and cold water. Reluctantly he sought medical advice and the diagnosis was a cervical disc herniation, requiring two vertebrae to be fused. The surgery was performed at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The planned recuperation time was three to six months. Collins spent three months in a neck brace. As a result, he was removed from the prime crew of Apollo 9 and his backup, Jim Lovell, replaced him as CMP. When the Apollo 8 mission was changed from a CSM/LM mission in high Earth orbit to a CSM-only flight around the Moon, both prime and backup crews for Apollo8 and9 swapped places.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Having trained for the flight, Collins was made a capsule communicator (CAPCOM), an astronaut stationed at Mission Control responsible for communicating directly with the crew during a mission. As part of the Green Team, he covered the launch phase up to translunar injection, the rocket burn that sent Apollo8 to the Moon. The successful completion of the first crewed circumlunar flight was followed by the announcement of the Apollo 11 crew of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. At that time, in January 1969, it was not certain this would be the lunar landing mission; this depended on the success of Apollo9 and Apollo 10 testing the LM.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: As CMP, Collins' training was completely different from the LM and lunar EVA, and was sometimes done without Armstrong or Aldrin being present. Along with simulators, there were measurements for pressure suits, centrifuge training to simulate the reentry, and practicing docking with a huge rig at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. Since he would be the active participant in the rendezvous with the LM, Collins compiled a book of 18 different rendezvous schemes for various scenarios including ones where the LM did not land, or it launched too early or too late. This book ran for 117 pages.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The was the creation of Collins. Jim Lovell, the backup commander, mentioned the idea of eagles, a symbol of the United States. Collins liked the idea and found a painting by artist Walter A. Weber in a National Geographic Society book, "Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America", traced it and added the lunar surface below and Earth in the background. The idea of an olive branch, a symbol of peace, came from a computer expert at the simulators. The call sign "Columbia" for the CSM came from Julian Scheer, the NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs. He mentioned the idea to Collins in a conversation and Collins could not think of anything better.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: During the training for Apollo 11, Slayton offered to get Collins back into the crew sequence after the flight. Collins would almost certainly have been the backup commander of Apollo 14, followed by commander of Apollo 17, but he told Slayton he did not want to travel to space again if Apollo 11 was successful. The difficult schedule of an astronaut strained his family life. He wanted to help achieve John F. Kennedy's goal of landing on the Moon within the decade and had no interest in further exploration of the Moon once the goal had been achieved. The assignment was given to Cernan.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: An estimated one million spectators watched the launch of Apollo 11 from the highways and beaches in the vicinity of the launch site. The launch was televised live in 33 countries, with an estimated 25 million viewers in the United States alone. Millions more listened to radio broadcasts. Propelled by a giant Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at 13:32 UTC (09:32 EDT), and entered Earth orbit twelve minutes later. After one and a half orbits, the S-IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon. About 30 minutes later, Collins performed the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver. This involved separating "Columbia" from the spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking with the Lunar Module "Eagle". After it was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew on a trajectory past it.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit. In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw passing views of their landing site in the southern Sea of Tranquillity about southwest of the crater Sabine D. At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered "Eagle" and began the final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 "Eagle" separated from "Columbia". Collins, alone aboard "Columbia", inspected "Eagle" as it rotated before him to ensure the craft was not damaged and that the landing gear had correctly deployed before heading for the surface.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although it has been said "not since Adam has any human known such solitude", Collins felt very much a part of the mission. In his autobiography he wrote "this venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two". In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio contact with the Earth while "Columbia" passed round the far side of the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or loneliness, but rather "awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: One of Collins' first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the ground. To give Collins an idea where to look, Mission Control radioed that they believed the lunar module landed about four miles off target. Each time he passed over the suspected lunar landing site, he tried in vain to find the lunar module. On his first two orbits on the far side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by the fuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return. "Columbia" orbited the Moon thirty times.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Just before he reached the far side on the third orbit, Mission Control informed Collins there was a problem with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts of "Columbia" might freeze. Mission Control advised him to assume manual control and implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure 17. Instead, Collins flicked the switch on the offending system from automatic to manual and back to automatic again, and carried on with normal housekeeping chores, while keeping an eye on the temperature. When "Columbia" came back around to the near side of the Moon again, he was able to report that the problem had been resolved. For the next couple of orbits, he described his time on the far side of the Moon as "relaxing". After Aldrin and Armstrong completed their EVA, Collins slept so he could be rested for the rendezvous. While the flight plan called for "Eagle" to meet up with "Columbia", Collins was prepared for certain contingencies in which he would fly "Columbia" down to meet "Eagle". After spending so much time with the CSM, he felt compelled to leave his mark on it, so during the second night following their return from the Moon, he went to the lower equipment bay of the CM and wrote:


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: In a July 2009 interview with "The Guardian", Collins said that he was very worried about Armstrong and Aldrin's safety. He was also concerned in the event of their deaths on the Moon, he would be forced to return to Earth alone and, as the mission's sole survivor, be regarded as "a marked man for life".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: At 17:54 UTC on July 21, "Eagle" lifted off from the Moon to rejoin Collins aboard "Columbia" in lunar orbit. After rendezvous with "Columbia", the ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit, and "Columbia" made its way back to Earth.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: "Columbia" splashed down in the Pacific east of Wake Island at 16:50 UTC (05:50 local time) on July 24. The total mission duration was eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and thirty-five seconds. Divers passed biological isolation garments (BIGs) to the astronauts, and assisted them into the life raft. Though the chance of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface was believed to be remote, it was still considered a possibility. The astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter, and flown to the aircraft carrier , where they spent the first part of the Earth-based portion of 21 days of quarantine (time in space was also counted), before moving on to Houston.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: On August 13, the three astronauts rode in parades in their honor in New York and Chicago, with about six million attendees. On the same evening in Los Angeles there was an official state dinner to celebrate the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, the Chief Justice of the United States, and ambassadors from 83 nations at the Century Plaza Hotel. In September, the astronauts embarked on a 38-day world tour that brought them to 22 foreign countries and included visits with world leaders.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine told Collins that Secretary of State William P. Rogers was interested in appointing Collins to the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. After the crew returned to the U.S. in November, Collins sat down with Rogers and accepted the position on the urgings of President Nixon. He was an unusual choice for the role, as he was neither a journalist nor a career diplomat. Nor, unlike some of his predecessors, did he act as the department spokesperson. Instead, as the head of the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, his role was that of managing relations with the public at large. He had a staff of 115 and a budget of $2.5 million, but this was small compared with the 6,000 public affairs staff at the United States Department of Defense.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins was appointed to the position on December 15, 1969, and began his work on January 6, 1970. He took over at a very difficult time. The Vietnam War was going badly, and the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings had triggered a wave of protests and unrest across the country. He had no illusions about his ability to change minds, but attempted to engage with the public all the same, playing on his Apollo 11 fame. He attributed part of the nation's problems to insularity. In a 1970 commencement speech at Saint Michael's College in Vermont, he told his audience that "Farmers speak to farmers, students to students, business leaders to other business leaders, but this intramural talk serves mainly to mirror one's beliefs, to reinforce existing prejudices, to lock out opposing views".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins realized he was not enjoying the job, and secured President Nixon's permission to become the Director of the National Air and Space Museum. His departure was officially announced on February 22, 1971. He worked in that role until April 11, 1971. The position remained vacant until Carol Laise replaced him in October 1973.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: On August 12, 1946, Congress passed an authorization bill for a National Air Museum, to be administered by the Smithsonian Institution, and located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Under the U.S. legislative system, authorization is insufficient; Congress also has to pass an appropriation bill allocating funding. Since this was not done, there was no money for the museum building.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The 1957 Sputnik crisis and the resulting Space Race led to a surge of public interest in space exploration. The "Freedom 7" and "Friendship 7" Project Mercury spacecraft were donated to the Smithsonian, and 2,670,000 visitors descended on the Arts and Industries Building when they were put on display in 1963. The museum was renamed the National Air and Space Museum in 1966, but there was still no funding to build it. Apollo 11 created another surge of interest in space. An exhibition of a Moon rock attracted 200,000 visitors in one month. On May 19, 1970, Senator Barry Goldwater, a retired USAF major general, gave an impassioned speech in the Senate for funding of a museum building.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The job had a clearly defined and tangible goal: to obtain Congressional funding, and to build the museum. Collins lobbied hard for the new museum. With the help of Goldwater in particular, Congress relented, and on August 10, 1972, approved $13 million and contract authority of $27 million for its construction. The $40 million budget was lower than he had hoped for, and the building had to be scaled back and some economies made.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: In addition to cost pressure, there was also severe time pressure, as the museum was scheduled to open on July 4, 1976, as part of celebrations of the upcoming United States Bicentennial. The design by architect Gyo Obata of the St. Louis firm Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaumof aimed to harmonize the new museum with the other ones on the National Mall, so the exteriors were faced with Tennessee marble to match the façade of the National Gallery of Art. Gilbane Building Company was awarded the construction contract. Everything was fast-tracked. Contracts were awarded as soon as each component of the design was complete. This allowed the first contract to be awarded within five months of the start of design. The design was completed in just nine months, and all contracts were awarded within a year of the start of design.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Ground was broken on the new museum on November 20, 1972. The building was built horizontally rather than vertically, as is the norm, so that work on the interiors could proceed concurrently. Overseeing construction was but a part of Collins' task: he also had to hire museum staff, oversee the creation of exhibits, and launch the Museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, a new division devoted to research and analysis of lunar and planetary spacecraft data. Collins described the project as "a monumental effort" in which "individual creativity combined with dedicated teamwork and plain hard work".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The museum was completed on budget, and opened three days ahead of schedule on July 1, 1976. President Gerald Ford presided over the formal opening ceremony. Over one million visitors passed through its doors in the first month, and it quickly established itself as one of the world's most popular museums, averaging between eight and nine million visitors per annum over the next two decades. Visitors entering saw "Columbia" in the Milestones of Flight Hall, along with the "Wright Flyer", the "Spirit of St. Louis" and "Glamorous Glennis".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins held the directorship until 1978, when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. During this time, although no longer an active-duty USAF officer after he joined the State Department in 1970, he remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He attained the rank of major general in 1976, and retired in 1982.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1974, and in 1980 became vice president of LTV Aerospace in Arlington, Virginia. He resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm, Michael Collins Associates. He wrote an autobiography in 1974 entitled "". "The New York Times" writer John Wilford wrote that it is "generally regarded as the best account of what it is like to be an astronaut."


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins has also written "Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space" (1988), a history of the American space program, "Mission to Mars" (1990), a non-fiction book on human spaceflight to Mars, and "Flying to the Moon and Other Strange Places "(1976), revised and re-released as "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story "(1994), a children's book on his experiences. Along with his writing, he has painted watercolors, mostly of the Florida Everglades or aircraft he has flown; they are rarely space-related. He did not initially sign his paintings to avoid them increasing in price just because they had his autograph on them.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins lived with his wife, Pat, in Marco Island, Florida, and Avon, North Carolina, until her death in April 2014.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Buzz Aldrin, who became the last survivor of Apollo 11, said that "wherever [Collins has] been or will be, you will always have the Fire to Carry us deftly to new heights and the future."


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins was a long-time trustee of the National Geographic Society and served as Trustee Emeritus. He was also a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins was inducted into four halls of fame: the International Air & Space Hall of Fame (1971), the International Space Hall of Fame (1977), the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame (1993), and the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1985). In 2008 he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, California. The International Astronomical Union honored him by naming an asteroid after him, 6471 Collins. Also, like the other two Apollo 11 crew members, he has a lunar crater named after him.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross in 1966 for his work in the Gemini Project. He was also awarded Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. Deputy NASA Administrator Robert Seamans pinned the NASA Exceptional Service Medal on Collins and Young in 1966 for their role in the Gemini 10 mission. For the Apollo Project, he was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. He was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1977.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Along with the rest of the Apollo 11 crew, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction by President Nixon in 1969 at the state dinner in their honor. The three were awarded the Collier Trophy and the General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy in 1969. The National Aeronautic Association president awarded a duplicate trophy to Collins and Aldrin at a ceremony. The trio received the international Harmon Trophy for aviators in 1970, conferred to them by Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1971. Agnew also presented them the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society in 1970. He told them, "You've won a place alongside Christopher Columbus in American history".


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins also received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) in 1970. In 1989, some of his personal papers were transferred to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In 1999, while celebrating the 30th anniversary of the lunar landing, Vice President Al Gore, who was also the vice chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents, presented the Apollo 11 crew with the Smithsonian's Langley Gold Medal for aviation. After the ceremony, the crew went to the White House and presented President Bill Clinton with an encased Moon rock.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: The crew was awarded the New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal in the Capitol Rotunda in 2011. It is the highest civilian award that can be received in the United States. During the ceremony, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said, "Those of us who have had the privilege to fly in space followed the trail they forged."


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins is one of the astronauts featured in the 2007 documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon." He had a small part as "Old Man" in the 2009 movie "Youth in Revolt". In the 1996 TV movie "Apollo 11", he was played by Jim Metzler, and in the 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon", he was played by Cary Elwes. In the 2009 TV movie "Moon Shot", he was played by Andrew Lincoln. In the 2018 film "First Man", he was portrayed by Lukas Haas, and he is featured in the 2019 documentary film "Apollo 11". For contributions to the television industry, the Apollo 11 astronauts were honored with round plaques on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In "For All Mankind" he is portrayed by Ryan Kennedy. In "The Crown" he is portrayed by Andrew-Lee Potts.


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: English prog rock group Jethro Tull recorded a song "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me", which appears on the "Benefit" album from 1970. The song compares the feelings of misfitting from vocalist Ian Anderson (and friend Jeffrey Hammond) with the astronaut's own, as he is left behind by the ones who had the privilege of walking on the surface of the Moon. In 2013, indie pop group The Boy Least Likely To released the song "Michael Collins" on the album "The Great Perhaps." The song uses Collins' feeling that he was blessed to have the type of solitude of being truly separated from all other human contact in contrast with modern society's lack of perspective. American folk artist John Craigie recorded a song titled "Michael Collins" for his 2017 album "No Rain, No Rose". The song embraces his role as an integral part of the Apollo 11 mission with the chorus, "Sometimes you take the fame, sometimes you sit back stage, but if it weren't for me them boys would still be there."


title: Michael Collins (astronaut)

text: Collins provided narration for the Google Doodle that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's 1969 mission to the Moon.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Tamera Darvette Mowry-Housley (née Mowry) () (born July 6, 1978) is an American actress, television personality, and former singer. She first gained fame for her teen role as Tamera Campbell on the ABC/WB sitcom "Sister, Sister" (opposite her twin sister Tia Mowry). She has also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Twitches" and its sequel, "Twitches Too" and she played Dr. Kayla Thornton on the medical drama "Strong Medicine".


title: Tamera Mowry

text: She next starred in a reality television series following her and her twin sister's lives, titled "Tia & Tamera", which began airing on the Style Network in 2011 and ended in 2013 after three seasons. From 2013 to 2020, Mowry was one of the co-hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show "The Real" originally alongside Adrienne Bailon, Tamar Braxton, Loni Love and Jeannie Mai. She was on the Hallmark Channel show "Home & Family" until the show's cancellation in August 2021.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Tamera Darvette Mowry was born in Gelnhausen in then-West Germany on July 6, 1978, to parents who were in the U.S. Army, Darlene Renee Mowry (née Flowers), who later became her children's manager and Timothy John Mowry, who became a custody officer/jailer with the City of Glendale Police Department when the family moved to California. Tamera Mowry is the older twin by two minutes. Tamera was born at 4:30 p.m., followed by Tia at 4:32 p.m. She also has two younger brothers actor, Tahj Mowry and musician, Tavior Mowry.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Her father has English and Irish ancestry and her mother is of Afro-Bahamian descent. Mowry's parents met in high school, in Miami, Florida, both joining the U.S. Army and both eventually reaching the rank of sergeant. Mowry has described her family as being both "close-knit" and "deeply religious," and the sisters became born-again Christians when they were eight years old.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Mowry and her twin sister, Tia, co-starred as the main characters in "Sister, Sister", a television show that aired from 1994 through 1999. Starring the two girls, Tamera Mowry played Tamera Campbell, who was adopted and separated from birth away from her twin sister. The show kickstarts from where the twins meet coincidentally in the mall. The comedy TV show shows the two sisters combining worlds with their adopted parents combining households. Tia, her twin, is intelligent and from inner-city Detroit while Tamera is the boy-crazy twin from the suburbs.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Tamera and Tia worked in the 2005 Disney Channel film "Twitches". In 2013, Mowry became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show "The Real" alongside Adrienne Bailon, Tamar Braxton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai. After premiering on July 15, "The Real" was picked up to series the following year. In 2018, Mowry and her co-hosts won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host for their work. In July 2020, Mowry announced that after six seasons she would be leaving the show.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: She returned to the show as a guest on December 8, 2020, that same day, Mowry joined "Home & Family" as a new family member on the show, succeeding Paige Hemmis.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: In 2021, Mowry competed in season 5 of "The Masked Singer" as "Seashell". She was eliminated on Week 7 alongside Bobby Brown as "Crab". This show also revived Tamera being a singer.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Mowry and her twin sister, Tia, started a project called Need Brand as they entered motherhood. Milky! and Stretchy! are two of the products that can cater to motherhood. Milky! is a 2.5 oz. bottle with all organic ingredients that can help mothers produce milk. Stretchy! is a stretch mark cream for post-operation scars. Another sibling project of theirs was a four-book series called "Twintuition: Double Vision" and "Twintuition: Double Trouble". She signed an overall deal with Crown Media in 2020.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: In July 2013, Mowry revealed that she did not lose her virginity until she was 29. She elaborated that she felt guilty after she had sex and afterward committed to remaining celibate until marriage. She married Fox News correspondent Adam Housley, after dating for almost six years, on May 15, 2011, in California's Napa Valley. They have a son, Aden John Tanner and a daughter, Ariah Talea. The couple owns a home in Napa Valley, near her husband's family's vineyard.


title: Tamera Mowry

text: Mowry's niece, Alaina Housley (born in 2000), was among the victims of the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 7, 2018.


title: Sela Ward

text: Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American actress, author, and producer. Her breakthrough TV role was as Teddy Reed in the NBC drama series "Sisters" (1991–1996), for which she received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994. She received her second Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for the leading role of Lily Manning in the ABC drama series "Once and Again" (1999–2002). Ward later had the recurring role of Stacy Warner in the Fox medical drama "House", also starred as Jo Danville in the CBS police procedural "" (2010–2013) and starred as Dana Mosier in the CBS police procedural series "FBI" (2018–2019).


title: Sela Ward

text: She also played supporting roles in films, including "The Man Who Loved Women" (1983), "Rustlers' Rhapsody" (1985), "Nothing in Common" (1986), "Hello Again" (1987), "The Fugitive" (1993), "My Fellow Americans" (1996), "The Badge" (2002), "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), "The Guardian" (2006), "The Stepfather" (2009), "Gone Girl" (2014), and "" (2016).


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward was born in Meridian, Mississippi, to Annie Kate (née Boswell), a housewife, and Granberry Holland "G.H." Ward, Jr., an electrical engineer. Her father is a native of Meridian while her mother was born in Choctaw County, Alabama, before moving to Meridian as a child. Ward is the eldest of four children with a sister, Jenna, and two brothers, Joseph Brock and Granberry Holland Ward III. She graduated from Lamar School in Meridian.


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward attended the University of Alabama, where she was Homecoming Queen, a Crimson Tide cheerleader, and joined Chi Omega sorority. She double-majored in fine art and advertising. She graduated in 1977.


title: Sela Ward

text: While working in New York City as a storyboard artist for multimedia presentations, Ward began modeling to supplement her income. She was recruited by the Wilhelmina agency and was soon featured in television commercials promoting Maybelline cosmetics.


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward eventually moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983 Burt Reynolds vehicle "The Man Who Loved Women". Her first regular role in a television drama series, as a socialite on Dennis Weaver's short-lived CBS series, "Emerald Point N.A.S.," followed in the same year. Ward continued to land guest roles in both television and movies throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite Tom Hanks in 1986's "Nothing in Common". In 1991 she was cast as the bohemian alcoholic Teddy Reed on "Sisters," for which she received her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994. She portrayed Helen Kimble, the wife of Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), in "The Fugitive", one of the top films of 1993.


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward won a CableACE Award for her portrayal of the late television journalist Jessica Savitch in the 1995 TV movie "Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story." "Almost Golden" remains Lifetime's most watched TV movie to date.


title: Sela Ward

text: In 1995, Ward was passed over for a Bond girl role, learning that even though then-Bond Pierce Brosnan was 42, the casting director said "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago". In response, she developed and produced a documentary, "The Changing Face of Beauty", about American obsession with youth and its effect on women. Later on, Ward would voice the part of former model turned villain Page Monroe in an episode ("Mean Seasons") of "The New Batman/Superman Adventures", which focused primarily on the media's obsession with youth.


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward succeeded Candice Bergen as commercial spokesperson for Sprint's long distance telephone service from 1999 until 2002. She also appeared on "Frasier" as supermodel/zoologist Kelly Easterbrook in the fifth season opener ("Frasier's Imaginary Friend"). When she read for the role of Lily Brooks Manning on the series "Once and Again", its creators (Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of "thirtysomething" fame) initially deemed Ward "too beautiful" for the average single mother to identify with. Ward received her second lead actress Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.


title: Sela Ward

text: In 2004, she played the role of a private investigator in the television movie "Suburban Madness." The same year, she also appeared in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" with Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2005, she began a recurring role in the Fox dramatic series "House" as Stacy Warner, the hospital's attorney and formidable ex-partner of the protagonist Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie). In 2006, Ward's character was written off the show. However, she made her last guest appearance in the series finale (which aired on May 21, 2012).


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward was originally offered both the role of Megan Donner on "" and Susan Mayer on "Desperate Housewives", but turned both down. Ward was reluctant to commit to another lead role in an hour-long series because of the time away from her family it would require.


title: Sela Ward

text: Although she was on a brief hiatus from television, she continued to appear in feature films. She starred opposite Kevin Costner in "The Guardian" in 2006 and starred in the thriller "The Stepfather" in 2009. In July 2010, Ward signed on to star in the police drama "", at the seventh season's start. Ward remained on the show until the ninth and final season's end in February 2013.


title: Sela Ward

text: Ward appeared as newswoman Sharon Schieber in "Gone Girl" (2014), and co-starred in "", released June 2016, in which she played the President of the United States, President Lanford. She also played the leading role alongside Nick Nolte in the political comedy series "Graves". She was in a leading role alongside Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki and Jeremy Sisto in the crime series "FBI".


title: Sela Ward

text: On May 23, 1992, Ward married entrepreneur Howard Elliott Sherman. They have two children: Austin and Anabella.


title: Sela Ward

text: After meeting two foster children during a holiday trip home to Mississippi in 1997, Ward decided to meet a broader need for abused and neglected children by initiating and partially funding the creation of a permanent group home and emergency shelter, as well as transition houses. Hope Village for Children opened in Ward's hometown of Meridian in January 2002, housed on a property once used as a Masonic-owned and operated orphanage, and is intended to serve as a pilot for a nationwide network of similar shelters. Hope Village currently has a capacity of 44 residents and serves an average of 300 children per year.


title: Sela Ward

text: In 2002, Ward published her autobiography, "Homesick: A Memoir", through HarperCollins' ReganBooks imprint. In 2014, Ward was a part of her first group art exhibition at KM Fine Arts.


title: Sela Ward

text: A roughly stretch of 22nd Avenue in Meridian (from 6th Street southeast to the Interstate 20 highway interchange) has been named the "Sela Ward Parkway" in her honor.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After his early death, he was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming both the first Caribbean and the first Latin-American player to be enshrined. Because he died at a young age and had such a historic career, the Hall of Fame changed its rules of eligibility. As an alternative to a player having to be retired for five years before eligibility, a player who has been deceased for at least six months is eligible for entry.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was an All-Star for 13 seasons, selected to 15 All-Star Games. He was the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and a Gold Glove Award winner for 12 consecutive seasons from 1961 through 1972. His batting average was over .300 for 13 seasons and he had 3,000 hits during his major league career. He also was a two-time World Series champion. Clemente was the first player from the Caribbean and Latin America to win a World Series as a starting position player (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971).


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons. He often delivered baseball equipment and food to those in need. In 1972, he died in a plane crash at the age of 38 while en route to deliver aid to victims of the Nicaragua earthquake. The following season, the Pirates retired his uniform number 21, and MLB renamed its annual Commissioner's Award in his honor. Now known as the Roberto Clemente Award, it is given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team."


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Roberto was born in Barrio San Antón, Carolina, Puerto Rico, to Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker. He was the youngest of seven children. During Clemente's childhood, his father worked as a foreman for sugar cane crops located in the municipality, located in the northeastern part of the island. Because the family's resources were limited, Clemente and his brothers worked alongside his father in the fields, loading, and unloading trucks. As a youth, Clemente was a track and field star and Olympic hopeful before deciding to turn his attention to baseball.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente had first shown interest in baseball early in life and often played against neighboring barrios. He attended Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado High School in Carolina. During his first year in high school, he was recruited by Roberto Marín to play softball with the Sello Rojo team after he was seen playing baseball in barrio San Antón. He was with the team two years as a shortstop.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente joined Puerto Rico's amateur league when he was 16 years old, playing for the Ferdinand Juncos team, which represented the municipality of Juncos.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente's professional baseball career began at age 18 when he accepted a contract from Pedrín Zorilla with Cangrejeros de Santurce ("Crabbers"), a winter league team and franchise of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League (LBPPR). Clemente signed with the team on October 9, 1952. He was a bench player during his first season but was promoted to the Cangrejeros' starting lineup the following season. During this season he hit .288 as the team's leadoff hitter.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: While Clemente was playing in the LBPPR, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract with one of the team's Triple-A affiliates.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: After signing with the Dodgers on February 19, 1954, Clemente moved to Montreal to play with the Royals. Affected early on by both climate and language differences, Clemente received assistance from bilingual teammates such as infielder Chico Fernandez and pitchers Tommy Lasorda and Joe Black.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Black was the original target of the Pittsburgh Pirates' June 1, 1954, scouting trip to Richmond. Conducted by pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, the mission's focus quickly shifted when he witnessed Clemente's throwing and batting prowess in pre-game drills. Nonetheless, Clemente barely played during Sukeforth's three-day visit. With his suspicions further aroused by manager Max Macon's dismissive remarks ("You mean you want "him"?!") and the fact that Clemente took batting practice with the pitchers rather than his fellow position players, Sukeforth made inquiries and soon ascertained Clemente's status as an unprotected bonus baby. The manager had been instructed to use Clemente "sparingly," acknowledged Macon almost 12 years later. "We tried to sneak him through the draft, but it didn't work." As Sukeforth told Pirates beat writer Les Biederman, "I knew then he'd be our first draft choice." Before leaving Richmond, he recalled, "I told Montreal manager Max Macon to take good care of 'our boy' and see that he didn't get hurt."


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Evidently, Macon took Sukeforth at his word; scarcely had the Pirate scout departed when, on June 4, Clemente started his first game in over a month. In the course of two days and three games (two of which he started), Clemente amassed ten at-bats, two more than in the previous thirty games combined. Yet just as abruptly, the moment was over and he was back to riding the bench, this time for almost two months.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente's extra inning, walk-off home run of July 25, 1954, the first home run of his North American baseball career, was hit in his first at-bat after entering the game as a defensive replacement. Perhaps prompted by Sukeforth's followup visit ("I don't care if you never play him; we're going to finish last, and we're going to draft him number one"), Clemente's appearance ended a nearly two-month-long drought starting on June 6 (17 appearances, 6 starts, and 24 at-bats in 60 games). From this point forward, Clemente's playing time increased significantly; he started every subsequent game against a left-handed starting pitcher, finishing the season with a batting average of .257 in 87 games. Clemente would complement his July 25 walk-off homer with another on September 5, as well as a game-ending outfield assist (cutting down the potential tying run at the plate) on August 18, his 20th birthday. As promised, the Pirates made Clemente the first selection of the Rule 5 draft that took place on November 22, 1954.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: For all but the first seven weeks of his major league career, Clemente wore number 21, so chosen because his full name of Roberto Clemente Walker had that many letters. After his death, this number was retired by the Pirates. For his first few weeks, Clemente wore the number 13, as his teammate Earl Smith was wearing number 21. It was later reassigned to Clemente.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: During the off-seasons (except the 1958–59, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1971–72, and 1972–73 seasons), Clemente played professionally for the Santurce Crabbers, Criollos de Caguas, and San Juan Senadores in the Puerto Rican baseball winter league, where he was considered a star. He sometimes managed the San Juan team.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In September 1958, Clemente joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He served his six-month active duty commitment at Parris Island, South Carolina, Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. At Parris Island, Clemente received recruit training with Platoon 346 of the 3rd Recruit Battalion. The rigorous Marine Corps training programs helped Clemente physically; he added strength by gaining ten pounds and said his back troubles (caused by being in a 1954 auto accident, see below) had disappeared. He was a private first class in the Marine Corps Reserve until September 1964.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: The Pirates struggled through several difficult seasons through the 1950s. They did have a winning season in 1958, their first since 1948.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente debuted with the Pirates on April 17, 1955, wearing uniform number 13, in the first game of a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Early in his career with the Pirates, he was frustrated by racial and ethnic tensions, with sniping by the local media and some teammates. Clemente responded to this by saying "I don't believe in color." He said that, during his upbringing, he was taught never to discriminate against someone based on ethnicity.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was at a double disadvantage, as he was a Latin American and Caribbean player whose first language was Spanish and was of partially African descent. The year before, the Pirates had hired Curt Roberts, their first African-American player. They were the fifth team in the NL and ninth in the major leagues to do so, seven years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line by joining the Dodgers. When Clemente arrived in Pittsburgh, Roberts befriended him and helped him adjust to life in the major league, as well as in the Pittsburgh area.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: During his rookie season, Clemente had to sit out several games, as he had suffered a lower back injury in Puerto Rico the previous winter. A speeding, drunk driver rammed into his car at an intersection.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: He finished his rookie season with a .255 batting average, despite trouble hitting certain types of pitches. His defensive skills were highlighted during this season.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: The following season, on July 25, 1956, in Forbes Field, Clemente hit the only documented walk-off, inside-the-park grand slam in modern MLB play. Pittsburgh-based sportswriter John Steigerwald said that it ""may" have been done only once in the history of baseball." [Emphasis added.])


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was still fulfilling his Marine Corps Reserve duty during spring of 1959 and set to be released from Camp Lejeune until April 4. A Pennsylvania state senator, John M. Walker, wrote to US Senator Hugh Scott requesting an early release on March 4 so Clemente could join the team for spring training.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Early in the 1960 season, Clemente led the league with a .353 batting average, and the 14 extra-base hits and 25 RBIs recorded in May alone resulted in Clemente's selection as the National League's Player of the Month. His batting average would remain above the .300 mark throughout the course of the campaign. On August 5 at Forbes Field, Clemente crashed into the right-field wall while making a pivotal play, depriving San Francisco's Willie Mays of a leadoff, extra-base hit in a game eventually won by Pittsburgh, 1–0. The resulting injury necessitated five stitches to the chin and a five-game layoff for Clemente, while the catch itself was described by Giants beat writer Bob Stevens as "rank[ing] with the greatest of all time, as well as one of the most frightening to watch and painful to make." The Pirates compiled a 95–59 record during the regular season, winning the NL pennant, and defeated the New York Yankees in a seven-game World Series. Clemente batted .310 in the series, hitting safely at least once in every game. His .314 batting average, 16 home runs, and defensive playing during the course of the season had earned him his first spot on the NL All-Star roster as a reserve player, and he replaced Hank Aaron in right field during the 7th and 8th innings in the second All-Star game held that season (two All-Star games were held each season from 1959 through 1962).


title: Roberto Clemente

text: During spring training in 1961, following advice from Pirates' batting coach George Sisler, Clemente tried to modify his batting technique by using a heavier bat to slow the speed of his swing. During the 1961 season, Clemente was named the starting NL right fielder for the first of two All-Star games and went 2 for 4; he hit a triple on his first at-bat and scored the team's first run, then drove in the second with a sacrifice fly. With the AL ahead 4–3 in the 10th inning, he teamed with fellow future HOFers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson to engineer a come-from-behind 5–4 NL victory, culminating in Clemente's walk-off single off knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. Clemente started again in right field for the second All-Star game held that season and was 0 for 2, flying and grounding out in the 2nd and 4th innings. That season he received his first Gold Glove Award.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Following the 1961 season, he traveled to Puerto Rico along with Orlando Cepeda, who was a native of Ponce. When both players arrived, they were received by 18,000 people. During this time, he was also involved in managing the Senadores de San Juan of the Puerto Rican League, as well as playing with the team during the major league off-season. During the course of the winter league, Clemente injured his thigh while doing some work at home but wanted to participate in the league's all-star game. He pinch-hit in the game and got a single, but experienced a complication of his injury as a result, and had to undergo surgery shortly after being carried off the playing field. This condition limited his role with the Pirates in the first half of the 1965 season, during which he batted .257. Although he was inactive for many games, when he returned to the regular starting lineup, he got hits in 33 out of 34 games and his batting average climbed up to .340. He participated as a pinch hitter and replaced Willie Stargell playing left field during the All-Star Game on July 15.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was an All-Star every season he played in the 1960s other than 1968—the only year in his career after 1959 in which he failed to hit above .300—and a Gold Glove winner for each of his final 12 seasons, beginning in 1961. He won the NL batting title four times: 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and won the league's MVP Award in 1966, hitting .317 with a career-high 29 home runs and 119 RBIs. In 1967, Clemente registered a career-high .357 batting average, hit 23 home runs, and batted in 110 runs. Following that season, in an informal poll conducted by "Sport Magazine" at baseball's Winter Meetings, a plurality of major league GMs declared Clemente "the best player in baseball today," edging out AL Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski by a margin of 8 to 6, with one vote each going to Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Bill Freehan and Ron Santo.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In an effort to make him seem more American, sportswriters started calling him Bob or Bobby and his baseball cards even listed him as Bob Clemente. He disliked the practice and asked that it be stopped.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: The 1970 season was the last one that the Pirates played at Forbes Field before moving to Three Rivers Stadium; for Clemente, abandoning this stadium was an emotional situation. The Pirates' final game at Forbes Field occurred on June 28, 1970. That day, Clemente said that it was hard to play in a different field, saying, "I spent half my life there." The night of July 24, 1970, was declared "Roberto Clemente Night"; on this day, several Puerto Rican fans traveled to Three Rivers Stadium and cheered Clemente while wearing traditional Puerto Rican attire. A ceremony to honor Clemente took place, during which he received a scroll with 300,000 signatures compiled in Puerto Rico, and several thousands of dollars were donated to charity work following Clemente's request.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: During the 1970 season, Clemente compiled a .352 batting average; the Pirates won the NL East pennant but were subsequently eliminated by the Cincinnati Reds. During the offseason, Roberto Clemente experienced some tense situations while he was working as manager of the Senadores and when his father, Melchor Clemente, experienced medical problems and underwent surgery.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In the 1971 season, the Pirates won the NL East, defeated the San Francisco Giants in four games to win the NL pennant, and faced the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Baltimore had won 101 games (third season in row with 100+ wins) and swept the American League Championship Series, both for the third consecutive year, and were the defending World Series champions. The Orioles won the first two games in the series, but Pittsburgh won the championship in seven games. This marked the second occasion that Clemente helped win a World Series for the Pirates. Over the course of the series, Clemente had a .414 batting average (12 hits in 29 at-bats), performed well defensively, and hit a solo home run in the deciding 2–1 seventh game victory. Following the conclusion of the season, he received the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Although he was frustrated and struggling with injuries, Clemente played in 102 games and hit .312 during the 1972 season. He also made the annual NL All-Star roster for the twelfth time (he played in 14/15 All-Star games) and won his twelfth consecutive Gold Glove. On September 30, he hit a double in the fourth inning off Jon Matlack of the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium for his 3,000th hit. It was his last regular season at-bat of his career. By playing in right field in one more regular season game, on October 3, Clemente tied Honus Wagner's record for games played as a Pittsburgh Pirate, with 2,433 games played. In the NL playoffs that season, he batted .235 as he went 4 for 17. His last game was October 11, 1972 at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium in the fifth and final game of the 1972 NLCS. He and Bill Mazeroski were the last Pirate players remaining from the 1960 World Series championship team.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente was married on November 14, 1964, to Vera Zabala at San Fernando Church in Carolina. The couple had three children: Roberto Jr., born in 1965, Luis Roberto, born in 1966, and Roberto Enrique, born in 1969. Vera Clemente died on November 16, 2019, aged 78.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In the 1958–59 off-season, Clemente enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and served during off-seasons through 1964. He was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, and into the Puerto Rican Veterans Hall of Fame 15 years later.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work. When Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, was affected by a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who visited Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake. He decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to the survivors. The airplane which he chartered for a New Year's Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane, had a history of mechanical problems and it also had an insufficient number of flight personnel (a flight engineer and a copilot were both missing), and it was also overloaded by . It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972, due to engine failure.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: A search and rescue effort was immediately launched, led by the USCGC "Sagebrush". A few days after the crash, the body of the pilot and part of the fuselage of the plane were found. An empty flight case which apparently belonged to Clemente was the only personal item of his which was recovered from the plane. Clemente's teammate and close friend Manny Sanguillén was the only member of the Pirates who did not attend Roberto's memorial service. Instead, the Pirates catcher chose to dive into the waters where Clemente's plane had crashed in an effort to find his teammate. The bodies of Clemente and three others who were also on the four-engine plane were never recovered.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Montreal Expos pitcher Tom Walker, then playing winter league ball in Puerto Rico (in a league later named after Clemente), helped him load the plane. Because Clemente wanted Walker, who was single, to go and enjoy New Year's, Clemente told him not to join him on the flight.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In an interview for the ESPN documentary series "SportsCentury" in 2002, Clemente's widow Vera mentioned that Clemente had told her that he thought he was going to die young several times. Indeed, while he was being asked when he would get his 3,000th career hit by broadcaster and future fellow Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn in July 1971 during the All-Star Game activities, Clemente's response was "Well, uh, you never know. I, I, uh, if I'm alive, like I said before, you never know because God tells you how long you're going to be here. So you never know what can happen tomorrow." Clemente's older stepbrother, Luis, died on December 31, 1954, exactly 18 years before Clemente himself, and his stepsister died a few years later.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: At the time of his death, Clemente had established several records with the Pirates, including most triples in a game (three) and hits in two consecutive games (ten). He won 12 Gold Glove Awards and shares the record of most won among outfielders with Willie Mays. On July 25, 1956, in a 9–8 Pittsburgh win against the Chicago Cubs, Clemente hit the only walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in professional baseball history.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: On March 20, 1973, the Baseball Writers' Association of America held a special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame. They voted to waive the waiting period for Clemente, due to the circumstances of his death, and posthumously elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame, giving him 393 out of 420 available votes, for 92.7% of the vote.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Clemente's Hall of Fame plaque originally had his name as "Roberto Walker Clemente" instead of the proper Spanish format "Roberto Clemente Walker"; the plaque was recast in 2000 to correct the error. Both plaques are currently on display in the Hall of Fame, the new one in the plaque gallery and the original in the “sandlot kids clubhouse” area.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Following his death, Clemente received numerous awards, recognitions and homages. Dozens of schools, streets, bridges, public parks, buildings and sports venues have been named in his honor. Clemente is the athlete with most statues and monuments dedicated in the world, with more than a dozen in several countries.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In 2012, the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League (LBPPR) was renamed Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, the number 21 was also permanently retired. He had been inducted in several Hall of Fames for his performance on the field and also for his humanitarian as part of the World Sports Humanitarian Hall (1995). Clemente has been the subject of several documentaries, books and other media.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: The government of Puerto Rico recognizes Clemente as a "prócer" (or national hero) and he has received the Congressional Gold Medal, Presidential Citizens Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom from the federal government of the United States. An initiative to have him canonized by the Catholic Church took place during the 2010s.


title: Roberto Clemente

text: In 2022, honoring 50 years since his passing, the MLB proclaimed September 15 as "Roberto Clemente Day".


title: Roberto Clemente

text: Since 1971, MLB has presented the Roberto Clemente Award (named the Commissioner's Award in 1971 and 1972) every year to a player with outstanding baseball playing skills who is personally involved in community work. A trophy and a donation check for a charity of the player's choice are presented annually at the World Series. A panel of three makes the final determination of the award recipient from an annual list of selected players.


title: Millimetre

text: The millimetre (international spelling; SI unit symbol mm) or millimeter (American spelling) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length. Therefore, there are one thousand millimetres in a metre. There are ten millimetres in a centimetre.


title: Millimetre

text: Since an inch is officially defined as exactly 25.4 millimetres, a millimetre is equal to exactly (≈ 0.03937) of an inch.


title: Millimetre

text: Since 1983, the metre has been defined as "the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of a second". A millimetre, of a metre, is therefore the distance travelled by light in of a second.


title: Millimetre

text: A common shortening of millimetre in spoken English is "mil". This can cause confusion since in the United States, "mil" traditionally means a thousandth of an inch.


title: Millimetre

text: For the purposes of compatibility with Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) characters, Unicode has symbols for:


title: Millimetre

text: In Japanese typography, these square symbols are used for laying out unit symbols without distorting the grid layout of text characters.


title: Millimetre

text: On a metric ruler, the smallest measurements are normally millimetres. High-quality engineering rulers may be graduated in increments of 0.5 mm. Digital callipers are commonly capable of reading increments as small as 0.01 mm.


title: Millimetre

text: Microwaves with a frequency of 300 GHz have a wavelength of 1 mm. Using wavelengths between 30 GHz and 300 GHz for data transmission, in contrast to the 300 MHz to 3 GHz normally used in mobile devices, has the potential to allow data transfer rates of 10 gigabits per second.


title: Millimetre

text: The smallest distances the human eye can resolve is around 0.02 to 0.04 mm, approximately the width of a thin human hair. A sheet of paper is typically between 0.07 mm and 0.18 mm thick, with ordinary printer paper or copy paper approximately 0.1 mm thick.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Heathrow and Stansted airports, and was the 36th-busiest in Europe by total passenger traffic. It covers a total area of .


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s; it has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, which cover areas of and respectively. It operates as a single-runway airport, using a main runway with a length of . A secondary runway is available but, due to its proximity to the main runway, can only be used if the main runway is not in use. In 2018, 46.1 million passengers passed through the airport, a 1.1% increase compared with 2017.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s. The Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, "The Beehive", was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year. During the Second World War, the airport was taken over by the military and was known as RAF Gatwick. After the war, the airport returned to its civilian capacity. Major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s. The airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In the 1960s, British United Airways (BUA) and Dan-Air were two of the largest British independent airlines at Gatwick, with the former establishing itself as the dominant scheduled operator at the airport as well as providing a significant number of the airport's non-scheduled services and the latter becoming its leading provider of inclusive tour charter services. Further rapid growth of charter flights at Gatwick was encouraged by the Ministry of Aviation, which instructed airlines to move regular charter flights from Heathrow. Following the takeover of BUA by Caledonian Airways at the beginning of the following decade, the resulting airline, British Caledonian (BCal), became Gatwick's dominant scheduled airline during the 1970s. While continuing to dominate scheduled operations at Gatwick for most of the 1980s, BCal was also one of the airport's major charter airlines until the end of the 1970s (together with Dan-Air, Laker Airways and British Airtours). As a result of conditions imposed by Britain's Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the takeover of BCal by the then newly privatised British Airways (BA) at the end of the 1980s, Dan-Air and Air Europe assumed BCal's former role as Gatwick's dominant scheduled short-haul operator while BA continued in BCal's erstwhile role as the airport's most important scheduled long-haul operator. Following the demise of Air Europe and Dan-Air (both of which had continued to provide a significant number of charter flights in addition to a growing number of scheduled short-haul flights at Gatwick) in the early 1990s, BA began building up Gatwick into a secondary hub (complementing its main hub at Heathrow). These moves resulted in BA becoming Gatwick's dominant airline by the turn of the millennium. BA's subsequent decision to de-hub Gatwick provided the space for EasyJet to establish its biggest base at the airport and to become its dominant airline.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: BAA Limited (now Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited) and its predecessors, BAA plc and the British Airports Authority, owned and operated Gatwick from 1 April 1966 to 2 December 2009.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the United States used Gatwick because of restrictions on the use of Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. The US-based carriers that flew to Gatwick were American (from Dallas/Fort Worth, Nashville, New York–JFK, Raleigh/Durham and St. Louis), Braniff (from Dallas/Fort Worth), Continental (from Cleveland, Houston–Intercontinental and Newark), Delta (from Atlanta, Cincinnati and New York–JFK), Eastern (from Miami), Northwest (from Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul), PeoplExpress (from Newark), Piedmont (from Charlotte), TWA (from New York–JFK and St. Louis), and US Airways (from Charlotte, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh). US Airways, Gatwick's last remaining US carrier, ended its service between Gatwick and Charlotte on 30 March 2013. This left Gatwick without a scheduled US airline for the first time in 35 years. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Delta Air Lines announced its intent to launch service between Gatwick and Boston in summer 2020, which would have made it the first US airline to service Gatwick since the withdrawal of the US Airways service in 2013, but the massive global travel downturn placed these plans on indefinite hold. In 2021 JetBlue became the first US airline to serve Gatwick since 2013, with services to New York–JFK and Boston.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: On 17 September 2008, BAA announced it would sell Gatwick after the Competition Commission published a report about BAA's market dominance in London and the South East. On 21 October 2009, it was announced that an agreement had been reached to sell Gatwick to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), who also have a controlling interest in Edinburgh airport, for £1.51 billion. The sale was completed on 3 December. In February 2010, GIP sold minority stakes in the airport of 12% and 15% to the South Korean National Pension Service and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for £100 million and £125 million, respectively. The sales were part of GIP's strategy to syndicate the equity portion of the original acquisition by issuing bonds to refinance bank debt. Although this entails bringing additional investors into the airport, GIP aims to retain management control. The Californian state pension fund CalPERS acquired a 12.7% stake in Gatwick Airport for about $155 million (£104.8 million) in June 2010. On 21 December 2010, the A$69 billion (£44 billion) Future Fund, a sovereign wealth fund established by the Australian government in 2006, agreed to purchase a 17.2% stake in Gatwick Airport from GIP for £145 million. This transaction completed GIP's syndication process for the airport, reducing its stake to 42% (although the firm's extra voting rights meant it still controlled the airport's board).


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In August 2020, the airport announced that has plans to cut over a quarter of its employees as a result of a planned company restructuring caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The planned cuts will bring the total workforce of the airport to 1,900; before the start of the pandemic it was 3,300, however, an additional 785 jobs were cut earlier in 2020.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The airport is owned and operated by Gatwick Airport Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), among others. In December 2018, Vinci announced that it would acquire 50.01% majority stake for £2.9bn, with a GIP-managed consortium of investors (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Australia's sovereign wealth fund and two public pension funds in California and South Korea) owning the remaining 49.9%. The sale was completed by the middle of 2019.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In August 2021, it was reported that Gatwick's operators were in talks with lenders following posting first-half year net losses of £245m.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: On 31 May 2008, Virgin Holidays opened the V Room, Gatwick's first lounge dedicated to their long-haul leisure travellers. On 25 January 2017, the lounge moved to the North Terminal together with the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse as part of the airline moves that saw British Airways and Virgin Atlantic exchange their previous terminal locations and EasyJet consolidated in the North Terminal. On 9 April 2009, an independent pay-for-access lounge opened in the South Terminal. Gatwick also has a conference and business centre, and several on- and off-site hotels ranging in class from executive to economy.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The airport has Anglican, Catholic and Free Church chaplains, and there are multi-faith prayer and counselling rooms in each terminal. A daily service is led by one of the chaplains.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The Civil Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Group is in Aviation House. WesternGeco, a geophysical services company, has its head office and Europe–Africa–Russia offices in Schlumberger House, a building on the airport grounds near the South Terminal. The company had a 15-year lease on the building, scheduled to expire in June 2008. In 2007, WesternGeco reached an agreement with its landlord, BAA Lynton, extending its lease to 2016 at an initial rent of £2.1 million. Fastjet has its registered and head offices at Suite 2C in First Point at the airport.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Before the sale, BAA planned an £874 million investment at Gatwick over five years, including increased capacity for both terminals, improvements to transport interchange and a new baggage system for the South Terminal. Passengers passing through the airport are informed about the redevelopment programme with large mobile barcodes on top of construction hoardings. Scanning these transfers information on the construction to the user's smartphone.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In summer 2013, Gatwick introduced Gatwick Connect, a free flight connection service to assist passengers changing flights at Gatwick whose airlines do not provide a full flight connection service. On 15 September 2015, the service was rebranded as "GatwickConnects". It is available to passengers connecting on several major airlines.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Gatwick operates as a single-runway airport although it has two runways; the northern runway (08L/26R) can only be used when the main runway (08R/26L) is out of use for any reason. The UK Integrated Aeronautical Information Package gives the Takeoff Run Available (TORA) of its main runway (08R/26L) as 3,255 m when aircraft take off in a westerly direction (26) and 3,159 m when takeoffs occur in an easterly direction (08). The documentation lists the respective TORA for the northern runway (08L/26R) as 2,565 m in both directions. Nearly three-quarters of takeoffs are towards the west (74% over a 12-month period). Both runways are wide; they are apart, which is insufficient for the simultaneous use of both runways. During normal operations the northern runway is used as a taxiway, consistent with its original construction (although it was gradually widened).


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In October 2018, the airport announced that it was "exploring how to make best use of its existing runways, including the possibility of bringing its existing standby runway into routine use". One scenario would see 08L/26R used for departing narrow-body aircraft only, while the longer 08R/26L would be used for wide-body take-offs and all landings; widening 08L/26R would also increase the centreline separation slightly. New technology could also be used to increase capacity on the main runway, and in the longer term the airport remains interested in constructing a new runway to the south.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The main runway uses a Category III Instrument Landing System (ILS). The northern runway does not have an ILS; when it is in use, arriving aircraft are radar vectored to intercept a RNAV (GNSS) approach, providing the aircraft is equipped and the operator has approval. This approach is satellite based and is also available for the main runway. When an RNAV approach is not possible, assistance from the approach controller using surveillance radar, a 'SRA approach' is available. This involves heading instructions and altitude callouts supplied by the Air Traffic Controller. On both runways, a continuous descent approach is used to minimise the environmental effects of incoming aircraft, particularly at night.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Night flights are subject to restrictions; between 11 pm and 7 am, noisier aircraft (rated QC/8 and QC/16) may not operate. From 11.30 pm to 6 am (the night quota period) there are three limits: Number of flights, a Quota Count system, limiting total noise permitted and no night QC/4 flights.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The airport is policed by the Gatwick District of Sussex Police. The district is responsible for the entire airport (including aircraft) and, in certain circumstances, aircraft in flight. The 150 officers attached to this district include armed and unarmed officers, and community support officers for minor offences. The airport district counters man-portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS) by patrolling in and around the airport and a separate sub-unit has vehicle checks around the airport.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Access to airside portions of the airport is controlled and maintained by the airport's team of security officers, regulated by the Department for Transport. Brook House, an immigration-removal centre of Immigration Enforcement, was opened near the airport on 18 March 2009 by the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The airport is a base for scheduled airlines British Airways (BA), EasyJet, Wizz Air, and charter operators such as TUI Airways. Gatwick is unique amongst London's airports in its representation of the three main airline business models: full service, low-cost and charter. As of October 2016, these respectively accounted for 26.6%, 61.3% and 13.1% of Gatwick's seat capacity.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: By late 2015, EasyJet flew over 100 routes from Gatwick with a fleet of more than 60 aircraft. The airport is the carrier's largest base, and its 16 million passengers per year accounted for 45% of Gatwick's 2013 total (ahead of Gatwick's second-largest passenger airline: BA, whose 4.5 million passengers comprised 14% of total passenger traffic in 2011–12).


title: Gatwick Airport

text: EasyJet, BA and Norwegian were Gatwick's three biggest resident airlines, although in late 2020 Norwegian announced the closure of its base at Gatwick. According to data from Airport Coordination Limited, these three airlines respectively accounted for 43.3%, 19% and 10.5% of airport slots in April 2018. According to this data, by April 2018 Norwegian had overtaken Virgin Atlantic as Gatwick's number one transatlantic airline by seat capacity, and BA's competitive response to Norwegian's growing commercial threat to its transatlantic business would result in Virgin's relegation to third position among the airport's transatlantic airlines during the 2018 summer timetable period. EasyJet, BA and Norwegian collectively accounted for 65.43% of Gatwick's total passengers in 2016 (EasyJet: 40.37% / 17.4 million; BA: 14.39% / 6.2 million; Norwegian: 10.67% / 4.6 million). As per Official Airline Guide (OAG) data for the week of 29 May 2017, their respective international departure seat capacity shares at the airport for summer 2017 are: 42.1%, 15.4% and 9.4%.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: In terms of passengers carried, EasyJet and BA were also among the five largest airlines operating at Gatwick in 2010 (which also included TUI Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines at the time) and the top 10 in 2015. In terms of total scheduled airline seats at Gatwick in 2014, EasyJet accounted for 18.36 million, more than two-and-a-half times as many as second-placed BA (seven million) and nearly five times the number offered by third-placed Norwegian Air Shuttle (3.74 million). Using data sourced from the OAG Schedules Analyser, the following changes in the respective departure seat capacity shares of Gatwick's three biggest airlines occurred from 2010 to 2015: EasyJet's share increased from 26.1% in 2010 to 42.1% in 2015; BA's share dropped from 18.3% in 2010 to 15% in 2015; Norwegian's share rose almost three-fold from less than 3% in 2010 to 8.3% in 2015. EasyJet, BA, Norwegian, TUI Airways, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines, Monarch Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Vueling and Emirates were Gatwick's top 10 airlines by share of passengers in 2017.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: EasyJet's acquisition of BA franchise carrier GB Airways in March 2008 increased its share of airport slots to 24% (from 17% in late 2007); the airline became the largest short-haul operator at the airport, accounting for 29% of short-haul passengers. By 2009, BA's share of Gatwick slots had fallen to 20% from its peak of 40% in 2001. By 2010, this had declined to 16%. By mid-2012, EasyJet had 45% of Gatwick's early-morning peak time slots (6 am to 8:55 am).


title: Gatwick Airport

text: By 2008, Flybe was Gatwick's third-largest airline (accounting for 9% of its slots) and its fastest-growing airline. It became the airport's largest domestic operator, carrying 1.2 million passengers in its 2011–12 financial year on eight routes to destinations in the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. In March 2013, the airline announced that it would end operations at Gatwick, citing unsustainably high airport charges and increases in UK Air Passenger Duty. Flybe sold its 25 pairs of daily slots at the airport to EasyJet for £20 million. The latter's share of Gatwick slots increased to 44% in summer 2014; second-placed BA has held about 16% of the airport's slots since 2010. Following the sale of its Gatwick slots to EasyJet, Flybe continued to provide the scheduled service between Gatwick and Newquay, as a result of being awarded the contract to fly this route under a four-year Public Service Obligation (PSO), until the flight was subsequently moved from Gatwick to Heathrow Airport in April 2019.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: The EU–US Open Skies Agreement, which became effective on 30 March 2008, led a number of airlines to downsize their transatlantic operations at Gatwick in favour of Heathrow. Continental Airlines was the second transatlantic carrier (after American Airlines) to leave Gatwick after its decision to transfer the seasonal Cleveland service to Heathrow on 3 May 2009.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: Slots left by the US carriers (and the collapse of Zoom Airlines, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, XL Airways UK, Sterling Airlines, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines, and Adria Airways) were taken by EasyJet, Flybe, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair. A number of full-service airlines have established or resumed operations at the airport, including Turkish Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific, WestJet, Qatar Airways, China Eastern Airlines, JetBlue, and Delta Air Lines. This is part of the airport's strategy to attract higher-spending business travellers (countering its dependence on European low-cost and charter markets), increasing year-round capacity utilisation by smoothing peaks and troughs in traffic. Gatwick's success in persuading these airlines to launch (or re-launch) routes to overseas destinations important for business and leisure travel was aided by a lack of comparable slots at Heathrow.


title: Gatwick Airport

text: On 5 May 2020, Virgin Atlantic announced it would cease operations at Gatwick due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 18 August 2020, Wizz Air announced a new hub at Gatwick Airport. Initially basing their A321 aircraft there along with additional commercial routes to Greece, Italy, Spain, and Malta operating from 22 October 2020, onwards.