'Not one iota lonely': Michael Collins on flying solo during Apollo 11 moon landing – video

Michael Collins, who was part of the Apollo 11 moon landing crew and kept the command module flying while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 90, his family said on Wednesday. He was sometimes known as the 'forgotten astronaut' because he did not get to land on the moon, while Armstrong and Aldrin became household names. But his role in the mission in 1969 was just as crucial and his task to keep the module in lunar orbit as his crewmates departed in the Eagle lander and then returned safely was just as crucial, nerve-racking and exciting for the mission as a whole.

• Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, dies aged 90