Astronaut Michael Collins, Apollo 11 pilot, dead of cancer

Mr. Collins was part of the three-man Apollo 11 crew that effectively ended the space race between the United States and Russia

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 on Wednesday of cancer, his family said. He was 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 after the Apollo 11 mission.