Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins dies aged 90 Michael Collins (1930 - 2021) NASA NASA NASA Apollo 11 astronaut Major General Michael Collins (USAF (Retired)) has died at the age of 90 after a battle with cancer. In 1969, Collins was the Command Module Pilot for the first crewed lunar landing, and remained in orbit aboard the Command Service Module (CSM) Columbia while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface. One of the third group of NASA astronauts chosen in the 1960s, Michael Collins was born on October 31, 1930 in Rome, Italy, where his father was the US military attaché. As an Army brat, he spent his childhood in many locations and joined the US Air Force in 1952, becoming a fighter pilot and later a test pilot.