Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins dies of cancer aged 90

Michael Collins was part of NASA's most famous mission to Mars. Credit: AP

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, has died of cancer at the age of 90.

Mr 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 some 238,000 miles to the moon and came within 69 miles, Mr Collins never set foot on the lunar surface like his crewmates Mr Aldrin and Mr Armstrong, who died in 2012.

None of the men flew in Space again after the Apollo 11 mission.

American astronauts Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins Credit: PA

“It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand,” Mr Collins said on the 10th anniversary of the moon landing in 1979.

“Exploration is not a choice really — it’s an imperative, and it’s simply a matter of timing as to when the option is exercised.”

Mr Collins spent the eight-day mission piloting the command module. While Mr Armstrong and Mr Aldrin descended to the Moon’s surface in the lunar lander, Eagle, Mr Collins remained alone in the command module, Columbia.

“I guess you’re about the only person around that doesn’t have TV coverage of the scene,” Mission Control radioed Mr Collins after the landing.

“That’s all right. I don’t mind a bit,” he responded.

Mr Collins was alone for nearly 28 hours before Mr Armstrong and Mr Aldrin finished their tasks on the moon’s surface and lifted off in the lunar lander.

Apollo 11 command module pilot astronaut Michael Collins takes a break during training for the moon mission. Credit: AP

Mr Collins was responsible for re-docking the two spacecraft before the men could begin heading back to Earth.

Had something gone wrong and Mr Aldrin and Mr Armstrong been stuck on the moon’s surface — a real fear — Mr Collins would have returned to Earth alone.

“I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have,” he wrote in his 1974 autobiography, Carrying The Fire.

“This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two.”