Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins during 1969 visit: "I feel like I belong in New Orleans" The NASA astronaut who died Wednesday considered New Orleans his adopted home. His father & grandfather were born here. He visited in 1969 after the moon landing. Credit: AP Author: Dominic Massa / WWL-TV Updated: 3:26 PM CDT April 28, 2021 NEW ORLEANS — Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who died Wednesday at 90, called New Orleans his adopted hometown. His father and grandfather were both born here and another relative was a former mayor. “I don’t feel like I’m really adopted. I feel like I belong in New Orleans,” Collins said in a Sept. 6, 1969 article in The States-Item newspaper, chronicling a visit to the city by the astronaut just a few months after the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.