Right he stayed in the command module orbiting the moon. I read recently that while Neil and Buzz were training for the landing Collins was training to fly the spacecraft alone in the event of a disaster on the moon.
That is true. If Neal and Buzz had a problem that wouldn’t let them come back and dock with the Command Module, Mike would have to bring it back alone, which would be awful. Glad none of them had to do that.
One of the little known stories that could have cost them the mission occurred when they suited up to go onto the surface of the moon. The ascent engine was fired by setting a series of circuit breakers. The panel was mounted near where they exited and in the process one of them broke off the end of the breaker.
Armstrong said over the radio that his “watch had stopped” which was a code phrase for “we have a really bad problem.” A lot of hearts skipped a beat in Mission Control.
Aldrin looked at the problem and figured out that they could poke a pen in the hole and trip the circuit breaker.