This article will dig into some exciting, fun, fast facts about the crew of Apollo 11. You will learn some not well-known truths about these three American astronauts forever remembered as national heroes.
Fast Facts About Apollo 11 Astronaut
- Both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were born in 1930, and they both fought in the Korean war. They shared the same dream: To fly through the skies.
- It wasn’t until they were brought together that they ended up flying higher than they ever dreamed.
- They teamed up to be a part of the Apollo 11 moon mission, and they became the first two humans to walk on the moon.
Buzz Aldrin
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. (who legally changed his name to his nickname “Buzz,” which he got from his sister, who used to pronounce “brother” as “buzzer”) looked up to his U.S. Air Force colonel father and headed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated third in his class in 1951.
He turned down a full scholarship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at America’s top military Academy, West Point. He flew F-86 Sabre Jets in 66 combat missions during the Korean War as part of the 51st Fighter Wing. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
The studies led him to a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics. His thesis focused on piloted spacecraft coming into proximity, or “manned orbital rendezvous,” which attracted NASA’s attention while recruiting a team to pioneer space flight.
The specialization earned him the nickname “Dr. Rendezvous.” And in 1966, he was assigned to the Gemini 12 crew, on which he walked in space for five hours. There he took the first selfie in space.
It wasn’t until the Apollo 11 mission came along that all his training, along with his expertise for calculating rendezvous maneuvers, that he became the perfect fit as the lunar module pilot. NASA says that Aldrin was “ideally qualified for this work, and his intellectual inclinations ensured that he carried out these tasks with enthusiasm.”
Neil Armstrong
By the time Neil was 15, he had taken flying lessons and became a licensed student pilot at 16. And that was before he got his driver’s license. Armstrong studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University on a U.S. Navy scholarship and trained as a Navy pilot. Like Aldrin, he served in the Korean War, and Armstrong flew in 78 combat missions.
He became part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), an early rendition of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), working as an engineer, test pilot astronaut. He later transferred to NASA’s Flight Research Center in the 1950s and became a research pilot and flew more than 200 kinds of aircraft.
Furthermore, he received his master’s in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. With both practical training and post-graduate education, he soon received astronaut status in 1962. In 1966, he was the command pilot of the Gemini VII mission, where he docked his capsule to the orbiting Agena spacecraft. Armstrong’s piloting skills stood out, and he was named spacecraft commander for Apollo 11.
Michael Collins
Michael was a fighter pilot and a test pilot with more than 4200 hours of flying time before joining NASA in 1963. Collins was a pilot on the Gemini X mission in 1966 and became the third U.S. spacewalker. His experience paved the way for him to become the command module pilot on Apollo 11 and remain in lunar orbit to ensure a safe return for Armstrong and Aldrin.
With their combined flying experience and previous NASA flights, the trio was brought together as “amiable strangers” and put into an “almost frantic” six-month training program. Their dedication and focus made them the perfect team to successfully land on the moon on July 20, 1969.
None of the astronauts lost their sense of humor in space
Despite the seriousness of their mission, none of the astronauts lost their sense of humor in space. Even as Aldrin took his historic steps down the lunar module ladder to follow Armstrong onto the moon’s surface on July 24, 1969, he joked that he was about to “close the hatch, making sure not to lock it on my way out.” Laughing, Armstrong replied, “A pretty good though.”
When capsule communicator Charles Duke saw that the sensors on Collins’s body had stopped transmitting his respiration rate data, Collins responded by saying, “I promise to let you know if I stop breathing.”
Check out this article that reveals the inside of the Apollo Saturn V rocket and its significant components. See for yourself these fantastic drawings. You will be amazed.