Out of 300 applicants, three were picked to fly the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. Mike Collins, an Air Force pilot, passed the tough physical, mental, and mechanical tests. He was made the pilot of the spaceship.
It took a lot of hard work to get ready for the flight. Collins practiced flight operations in a simulator (a model of the actual rocket). He had to know every technical detail and understand everything about the spaceship’s performance. Men’s lives would be in his hands! As pilot, Collins was at the helm of the spaceship. He circled the Moon alone while his fellow astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., became the first humans to step onto the lunar surface. The three men accomplished “a record that no one could better.” They were the first!