Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins dies at 90
WASHINGTON: American astronaut Michael Collins, who piloted the Apollo 11 command module while his crewmates became the first people to walk on the Moon, died on Wednesday (Apr 28) after battling cancer, his family said.
Sometimes called "the loneliest man in history" because of his long solo flight while his colleagues loped across the lunar surface, Collins never earned the same global name recognition as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
But he was hailed as a lifelong advocate of space exploration: erudite and witty yet also self-effacing, maintaining in a 2009 interview with NASA that his historic accomplishments were "90 per cent blind luck" and that astronauts should not be celebrated as heroes.
"Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, ...