<Tr> <Th> Retirement </Th> <Td> January 1970 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Awards </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930) (Major General, USAF, Ret .) is an American former astronaut and test pilot . Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew into space twice . His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and undertook two extra-vehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). His second spaceflight was as the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11 . While he stayed in orbit around the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left in the Lunar Module to make the first manned landing on its surface . He is one of 24 people to have flown to the Moon . Collins was the fourth person, and third American, to perform an EVA; and is the first person to have performed more than one EVA . </P> <P> Prior to becoming an astronaut, he graduated from the United States Military Academy, and from there he joined the United States Air Force and flew F - 86 Sabre fighters at Chambley - Bussieres Air Base, France . He was accepted to the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960 . He unsuccessfully applied for the second astronaut group, but was accepted for the third group . </P>

Who was the 3rd astronaut of the apollo 11 mission who did not go to the moon