'Forgotten' astronaut of 1969 moon landing shares strange way they were treated on return to Earth
Published on Jun 11, 2025 at 9:15 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jun 11, 2025 at 5:39 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
The third NASA astronaut who was part of the 1969 moon landing has revealed the strange reaction they got when they returned to Earth.
The 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was one of the most important events in human history.
It marked the first time man had ever stepped onto the moon, with NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong famously describing it as ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’.
However, while most of us are familiar with Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin E ‘Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo 11 mission actually had three crew members.
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The third was a NASA astronaut called Michael Collins, who successfully piloted the spacecraft to the moon and back again. So, a very important member of the crew.
Collins sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 90, but a couple of years before, he sat down with 60 Minutes Australia and opened up about the historic mission.
“Did I have the best seat on Apollo 11? No,” he said.
“Was I happy with the seat I did have? Yes – I really was, and to be any small part of that suited me very, very well. And, besides, I was their ticket home – they couldn’t get home without me.”
A good point, well made.
Collins went on to reveal the unusual situation they found themselves in when they returned to Earth.
“We were put into quarantine for two weeks … Some of our scientists were worried about the pathogens that we might have brought back from the moon, that they possibly would be dangerous to humankind.”
“So, their solution to that was to put us inside a hermetically sealed container with a gigantic colony of white mice – [if] the white mice lived we were okay, [if the] white mice died we were in deep trouble.”
Fortunately for the mice and the astronauts, there were no deaths, and the crew was able to complete their quarantine and go back to normal life.
Well, as normal as life can be when you’ve been through the incredible life-changing experience of seeing Earth from space, of course.
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With a background in both local and national press in the UK, Claire moved to New Zealand before joining the editorial team at Supercar Blondie in May 2024. As a Senior Content Writer working on New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), Claire was the first writer on the team to make the site’s output a slick 24/7 operation covering the latest in automotive news.
