Apollo 11 Apollo 11. The initial crew assignment of Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin on the backup crew for Apollo 9 was officially announced on November 20, 1967. Lovell and Aldrin had previously flown together as the crew of Gemini 12. Due to design and manufacturing delays in the LM, Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 swapped prime and backup crews, and Armstrong's crew became the backup for Apollo 8. Based on the normal crew rotation scheme, Armstrong was then expected to command Apollo 11. There would be one change. Michael Collins,
6469 Armstrong on the Moon, and the first person to walk on it, shortly followed by Buzz Aldrin, after whom the asteroid 6470 Aldrin is named. The minor planet 6471 Collins is named after the third crew member of the Apollo 11 mission. In 1966, Armstrong also conducted the first docking in space together with David Scott aboard Gemini 8. The asteroid's name was suggested by Czech astronomers Jana Tichá, Miloš Tichý and Zdeněk Moravec, who observed it during its 1995-opposition, shortly before being numbered. The lunar crater "Armstrong" is also named in his honor. The approved naming citation was published by