Editing Apollo 11 (section)

=== ''Columbia'' in lunar orbit ===

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",{{sfn|Collins|2001|p=402}} 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".{{sfn|Collins|2001|p=402}} 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".{{sfn|Collins|2001|p=402}}

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 {{convert|4|mile|km}} off target. Each time he passed over the suspected lunar landing site, he tried in vain to find the module. On his first orbits on the back side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by the [[fuel cell]]s and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return.{{sfn|Collins|2001|pp=401–407}}

Just before he reached the dark 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 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 back 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 a contingency in which he would fly ''Columbia'' down to meet ''Eagle''.{{sfn|Collins|2001|pp=406–408, 410}}