Astronaut Collins, Apollo 11 pilot, dies of cancer
Washington, April 28
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 US and Russia and fulfilled President John F Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon by the end of the 1960s. Though he travelled some 2,38,000 miles to the moon and came within 69 miles, Collins never set foot on the lunar surface like his crewmates Aldrin and Armstrong. — AP
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