Pilots First, Astronauts Second: The Military Service of the Apollo 11 Astronauts
“So, what are your plans when you get out?”
This is a familiar question for most current or former servicemembers. Military service can open many doors, creating a variety of post-service opportunities for Veterans.
Over the last 250 years, American Veterans have traveled many different life paths following their service. Some used the G.I. Bill to get a college education or learn a trade, some started businesses, some started families, and some went to space.
The ties between NASA and the U.S. military run deep. Since its inception, 212 of the 370 astronaut candidates chosen by NASA were active-duty members of the U.S. military. Of the remaining 138 civilians, many more were Veterans with prior military service.
Three of those Veterans who you may have heard of? Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, also known as the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission.
July 20, 2026, marks 57 years since Armstrong and Aldrin took their historic steps on the moon while Collins remained in lunar orbit, piloting the spacecraft that would bring them all safely home.
Before NASA, There Was NACA
After their invention by the Wright Brothers in 1903, airplanes were quickly identified as useful for military purposes; however, the United States military didn’t begin to heavily invest in the development of military aircraft until the outbreak of World War I.
While European countries had quickly embraced the use of aircraft in combat, the United States was lagging behind at the start of the war. In order to catch up, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was created by Congress in 1915.
For the next four decades, NACA was a leader in aeronautical research development, making substantial contributions to supersonic flight, jet propulsion, and improved flying qualities. While NACA’s goal for the majority of its existence was not spaceflight, many of the technological strides made by NACA were foundational for the 1960s space program.
NACA’s Relationship With the U.S. Military
As early as 1919, NACA turned to the military for skilled test pilots to assist with aeronautics experimentation and data collection. This began a long and ongoing relationship between NACA and the U.S. military which culminated in the X-1 supersonic program in the late 1940s.
As engineering and technological improvements allowed planes to fly higher and faster during World War II, there was a consistent problem: flying at high speeds was causing pilots to lose control of aircraft, often resulting in tragedy, and no one could explain why.
Worse still, the wind tunnels used by NACA to simulate flight for research purposes were unable to recreate the conditions that made this problem occur in order to study it. The only way to study this phenomenon and overcome it was through flight.
In 1946, NACA’s High-Speed Flight Test Facility was established alongside the military installation now known as Edwards Air Force Base. It was there that the first X-plane was built and launched to gather data and better understand how to safely fly at supersonic speeds (speeds as fast as or faster than the speed of sound).
In 1947, the X-1 program resulted in a record-breaking flight by U.S. Air Force Pilot Chuck Yeager, the first to break the sound barrier, successfully flying faster than the speed of sound.
Over the next decade, NACA research projects built on the X-1 program, sometimes in partnership with the U.S. military and sometimes alone. NACA continued to draw on active duty personnel for experienced pilots, but also established its own research-pilot corps made up of civilian NACA employees.
The Establishment of NASA
For the majority of its existence, NACA’s primary focus was improving flight capabilities, not necessarily going to space.
However, in the 1950s, both NACA and the U.S. Air Force separately began exploring the possibility of manned spaceflight. NACA conducted multiple relevant studies in the mid-1950s, meanwhile the Air Force launched its Man in Space Soonest (MISS) Program in 1958.
It was initially unclear which agency would be responsible for the country’s principal space program, though the MISS program quickly faced funding challenges and questions about the military necessity of spaceflight.
The situation became even more urgent in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, kicking off the Space Race of the next two decades.
In response to Sputnik, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which officially renamed NACA to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), expanding its mission and cementing it as the primary U.S. agency for space science and exploration.
NASA was intentionally established as a civilian agency, though the Department of Defense did continue some space-related activities in the realm of reconnaissance satellites, ballistic missiles, and other projects. In NACA to NASA to Now, former NASA Chief Historian Roger D. Launius argues that this was a strategic move on the part of the Eisenhower administration motivated by the Cold War.
According to Launius,
“NASA’s projects were clearly Cold War propaganda weapons that national leaders wanted to use to sway world opinion about the relative merits of democracy versus the communism of the Soviet Union.”
Continuing, he argues that “NASA’s civilian effort served as an excellent smokescreen for DOD’s military space activities.”
One thing is abundantly clear: the establishment of NASA as a civilian agency did not interrupt the ongoing relationship between civilian and military space research and activities. If anything, the two continued to be closely tied.
NASA’s Relationship With the U.S. Military
According to Teasel Muir-Harmony, Curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, NASA and the U.S. military have always been closely related, with the military providing significant expertise, logistical support, and manpower, especially throughout NASA’s early years.
Planning for human space flight drew heavily on Army and Navy expertise in launching satellites into space. Additionally, the Army Corps of Engineers provided and created much of the ground infrastructure necessary for space exploration. Perhaps most notable was the global presence of the U.S. Navy.
As Muir-Harmony put it,
“The whole architecture of American space flight, the decision to land astronauts in the water as opposed to land-based returns to Earth, which happened in the Soviet Union, was because of the US Navy and the ability for NASA to get support from the Navy to do those water landings.”
In terms of manpower, NASA’s very first class of astronaut candidates was all intentionally chosen from the military’s test pilot force. This came as the express directive of President Eisenhower, who believed that military pilots would make the best astronaut candidates.
By Eisenhower’s estimation, their military experience meant they would be disciplined, loyal to their country, and willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary. Furthermore, these individuals would have already undergone rigorous training and clearances.
The requirement that candidates be graduates from a military test pilot school was eventually dropped by the third class of astronaut candidates who joined NASA in 1963, and by the fourth class in 1965, prior service was not a requirement at all.
However, military service continued to give candidates an advantage in meeting minimum requirements related to flight experience, physical condition, and access to aerospace education and training.
Many of these early astronauts in the Mercury and Apollo missions actually saw their work with NASA as a continuation of their military service and as a key battle of the Cold War. As Muir-Harmony put it,
“They understood what they were doing as service to their country and as part of a larger mission.”
Military Pilots First, Astronauts Second
The three Apollo 11 astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) were chosen from the first three astronaut classes, and all had prior military experience.
Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were both active-duty Airmen during their time at NASA, and Neil Armstrong was a Navy Veteran. While being astronauts is undoubtedly what these three men are most known for, they were military pilots before they were astronauts.
Michael Collins
Michael Collins' military career started at West Point Military Academy in 1948, where he earned his Bachelor's degree. He was continuing a family legacy. His father was a U.S. Army Major General at the time he was born, and he had two uncles, a brother, and a cousin who all joined the Armed Forces before him.
At the time, the Air Force was newly established as a separate service from the Army and did not have its own academy, so West Point graduates could choose whether to join the Army or Air Force. Despite his family’s longstanding service in the U.S. Army, Collins chose to blaze a new trail in the Air Force.
His performance in initial flight training earned him a spot on multiple advanced fighter training teams. He often flew F-86 Sabres, and was trained to deliver nuclear weapons.
Eventually, his experience and ability led him to Edwards Air Force Base, where he joined the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot program in 1960. The Experimental Flight Test Pilot program was specifically designed to train pilots for testing new and cutting-edge aerospace technologies.
This was a key qualification for joining NASA’s newly established Astronaut Corps, but Collins’ initial application for the second class of astronauts chosen in 1962 was unsuccessful.
Rather than being discouraged by this outcome, Collins was motivated to join the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, which helped him gain enough experience to be chosen for the third class of astronauts in 1963.
His lesser-known first spaceflight took place in July 1966 as part of the Gemini program, which ran concurrently with the Apollo space program. The goal of the Gemini Program was to practice space rendezvous and extravehicular activities (anything astronauts had to do outside of their spacecraft). On this mission, Collins performed a spacewalk.
Collins was then chosen for the Apollo 8 mission, which put the first astronauts in lunar orbit - a key stepping stone for being able to land on the moon. However, shortly before the mission was set to launch, Collins experienced a back injury that required surgery, and a member of the backup crew took his place.
As Collins himself described it, there was a sort of “knit one, purl two” system to the Apollo program - if you were backup on a mission, you’d typically wait two missions and then be chosen to crew the third. The swap off of Apollo 8 due to this back injury put him in a position to join the Apollo 8 backup crew (Aldrin and Armstrong) for Apollo 11.
During the Apollo 11 mission, Collins was responsible for piloting the Command Module in orbit around the moon so that Armstrong and Aldrin could rendezvous with the Command Module after their time on the surface of the moon.
Collins is sometimes called the “forgotten astronaut” because he was the one who stayed in the Command Module rather than walking on the moon. However, Collins didn’t feel any resentment for being the one who stayed back.
In an interview in 1997, he explained that he felt it was a privilege simply to be on the Apollo 11 crew.
“I was very pleased to have one of those three [spots]. Did I have the best of the three? No. But was I pleased with the one I had? Yes! And I have no feelings of frustration or rancor or whatever. I’m very, very happy about the whole thing.”
Collins left NASA and active duty service in 1970, but remained in the Air Force Reserve. He was briefly appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs under the Nixon administration before serving as the first Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, overseeing the funding and construction of the museum in the 1970s.
Collins officially retired from the Air Force Reserves in 1982 as a Major General. When asked about his service and accomplishments later in life, he reflected,
“I’ve been in the right place at the right time, and I’ve been able to do a good job when those opportunities were presented to me.”
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin was also a West Point graduate who chose to join the Air Force when he graduated. Unlike Collins, who spent most, if not all, of his military career in the U.S., Aldrin graduated from flight training and received orders to Korea.
During his tour in the Korean War, Aldrin flew 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabre Jets and personally shot down two Russian MIG-15 fighter jets. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service during the war.
After a few years serving as a flight commander at Bitburg Air Base in West Germany, Aldrin chose to pursue his education further. He earned his Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963.
Like Collins, Aldrin was passed over the first time he applied for the astronaut program’s second candidate class - in his case because he was not a graduate of a military test pilot school. When that requirement was dropped for the third class of astronauts, Aldrin reapplied and was accepted.
Before his famous exploits in space, Aldrin was responsible for many breakthroughs here on Earth that were critical for the success of the Gemini and Apollo missions. He devised spacecraft docking and rendezvous techniques that were critical for the success of those missions, and also pioneered underwater training techniques that simulated working in zero gravity during a spaceflight.
Aldrin’s first trip to space was on the Gemini 12 mission in 1966. During that mission, Aldrin completed a record-breaking space walk, spending five and a half hours outside the spacecraft and successfully demonstrating the ability to perform useful work in space - clearly his underwater training methods paid off.
Aldrin was then chosen for the Apollo 8 backup crew, putting him in position for Apollo 11. Along with Neil Armstrong, Aldrin piloted the Lunar Module to the surface of the moon. He followed Armstrong out of the LM, becoming the second man to ever walk on the moon.
Aldrin remained with NASA until 1971, when he became the commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. He officially retired from Active-duty service as a colonel in 1972.
In his book, Men from Earth, Aldrin reflected on his military service and how it prepared him to be an astronaut.
“Combat flying requires an intensity and skill far beyond anything in peacetime aviation," he wrote. "Years later, those of us who'd served in Korea were prepared for the hazards and uncertainty of spaceflight because we had already come to terms with fear.”
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong was interested in flying from the time he was a child, eventually getting his pilot's license at just 16 years old. Though World War II had ended by the time Armstrong finished high school, military service was not off the table for him.
Shortly before graduation, he took part in a nationwide aptitude test as part of the Holloway Plan. While Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps programs had existed since the 1920s, the Holloway Plan introduced the first ROTC program as we know it today.
Participants in the Holloway Plan would spend two years studying at a university before commissioning in the U.S. Navy and serving three years of active duty. After that, they’d return to school to finish their degrees. Tuition and fees were covered by the federal government.
Armstrong chose Purdue University for his studies, but was quickly called up for Active-duty service and completed flight training in 1949.
During the Korean War, Armstrong flew F-9F Panther Jets in 78 combat missions. On one notorious mission, his jet was damaged and he had to parachute out - something that had been explained to him, but that he’d never done before in practice.
Armstrong’s final mission was in March 1952. Afterward, he transitioned to the Navy Reserve and went back to Purdue to finish his Bachelor’s degree.
Shortly after finishing his degree, Armstrong got a job with NACA working as a research pilot and research engineer. He also worked at Edwards Air Force Base, though he was technically part of NACA’s civilian test pilot cohort.
By the time Armstrong applied to be an astronaut, he’d resigned his commission in the Reserves and was officially a civilian. However, his participation in the NACA test pilot program qualified him to be chosen in the second class of astronaut candidates for NASA in 1962.
Like Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong's first mission to space was in the Gemini program. His trip to space as part of Gemini 8 in 1966 technically made him the first American civilian in space.
During the Apollo 8 mission, for which Armstrong served on the backup crew, he found out he had been chosen as the commander for the Apollo 11 mission.
As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong successfully piloted the Lunar Module to the moon’s surface and became the first man to walk on the moon - as he famously put it, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Though he eventually left NASA in 1971, Armstrong remained involved in the aerospace field in both the public and private sectors throughout the rest of his career.
Armstrong also participated in two USO tours during his life, the first during the Vietnam War and later with the Legends of Aerospace Tour in 2010. At one point during the 2010 tour, Armstrong was asked about how his naval service compared to his experience as an astronaut.
“They all require dedication, skill and eternal vigilance. They all involve the acceptance of risk — military combat probably is the highest risk … and spaceflight requires that you accept some risk," he explained.
But it’s about more than just the work and the risk. Armstrong pointed out that the teamwork and the people involved were the most memorable and important in both experiences: “the most fulfilling memories are associated with the people you work with, particularly those who made a difference and made the improbable possible. In my case, there are a lot of those people, and I am in their debt."
The Astronauts of Tomorrow
To this day, the relationship between NASA and the U.S. military remains a close one. For decades, the Air Force and Navy have maintained close ties with NASA and provided support for civilian spaceflight. Much of this activity has recently been taken over by the U.S. Space Force, officially established in 2019.
In 2024, the first active-duty Guardian astronaut went to space. Meanwhile, active-duty and former military pilots from other branches continue to make up a significant portion of NASA’s Astronaut Corps. In fact, of the ten candidates currently in training to be astronauts, four are active-duty servicemembers and three more are Veterans.
For these astronauts, military service has taken them into the vast and fascinating unknown of space. Where has your military service taken you?
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BY DANA CONGELOSI
Military Spouse and Contributing Writer at VeteranLife
Marine Corps Veteran
Dana is a military spouse who has spent more than five years navigating the unique rhythms of military life alongside her partner. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Anthropology from St. Lawrence University and has built her career across museums, public libraries, and recreation. Thro...
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Dana is a military spouse who has spent more than five years navigating the unique rhythms of military life alongside her partner. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Anthropology from St. Lawrence University and has built her career across museums, public libraries, and recreation. Thro...
