Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who piloted the ship from which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left to make their historic first steps on the moon in 1969, died Wednesday of cancer, his family said. He was 90.
Collins was part of the three-man Apollo 11 crew that effectively ended the space race between the United States and Russia and fulfilled President John F Kennedy's challenge to reach the moon by the end of the 1960s.
Though he travelled over 2 lakh miles to the moon and came within 69 miles, Collins never set foot on the lunar surface like his crewmates Aldrin and Armstrong.
Collins was alone for nearly 28 hours before Armstrong and Aldrin finished their tasks on the moon's surface and lifted off in the lunar lander.