Forgotten astronaut of 1969 moon landing shares bizarre way they were treated upon returning to Earth

The 'forgotten astronaut' of the 1969 moon landing shared the bizarre way they were treated upon returning to Earth following the successful mission.

To be honest, if you're thinking of names associated with the famed moon landing, then you're immediately turning to Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. But there were, of course, other names involved on that iconic day.

Apollo 11 mission may be so well known, but I bet you the majority of folks have never heard of Michael Collins, despite his importance within the mission.

Collins, who was the third astronaut to help Armstrong and Aldrin take those infamous steps on the moon, passed away in 2021 at the grand age of 90.

Before that, the astronaut sat down with 60 Minutes Australia in 2019, where he discussed what it was like to be involved with the famed space mission.

"Did I have the best seat on Apollo 11? No," he said.

However, he continued: "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."

From left to right, Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr. (Space Frontiers/Getty Images)

As his crew mates collected rocks on the surface, Collins orbited on the far side of the moon in complete darkness.

He recalled the 'terrible' food on the mission, and said that while it was 'not a very comfortable place', he did enjoy his time there.

That being said, Collins insisted the moon was 'nothing compared to our home planet'.

Unfortunately, the astronauts weren't immediately thrown back into home comforts upon their return to Earth.

Collins explained: "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, they possibly would be dangerous to humankind.

Collins was known as the forgotten astronaut of the Apollo 11 mission (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"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.

"Of course, I was checking on them... there were too many of them to give names to but they became my friends."

Thankfully the mice lived to tell the tale and, clearly, so did the astronauts!