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Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins died aged 90 this week and was a vital part of the mission as he was orbiting the craft around the moon, according to ANU cosmologist and astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker.

“He was the third member of Apollo 11, we obviously know Neil Armstrong the first to go on the moon and Buzz Aldrin afterwards, that only worked because Michael Collins was up in the command module orbiting around controlling it,” he told Sky News.

“He was proud of that job and he actually would have been faced to make a lot of terrible decisions if something went wrong on the lunar surface so he was kind of this vital life link and a sad passing into the history of space travel.”

Dr Tucker said Michael Collins was the only one on the Apollo 11 mission who readjusted to life back on Earth and his role in the mission was to stay back and operate the command module.

“He was the only one to adjust to normalcy, Buzz Aldrin had a lot of issues including drinking, Neil Armstrong became a kind of recluse, Michael Collins was quite proud of his job although it is like he ran a marathon except he was told to stop 100 metres short of the finish line.”