Essex-class aircraft carrier and "Princeton" recovered the second crew to orbit the Moon, aboard Apollo 10, in May 1969. "Hornet" rejoined the program and recovered the astronauts from the first two moon landing missions, Apollo 11 in July 1969 and Apollo 12 in November. The first steps on Earth of returning astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins, are marked on her hangar deck, as part of her Apollo program exhibit. The three subsequent missions utilized amphibious assault ships as support vessels; however, "Ticonderoga" recovered the astronauts of the last two moon missions, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 in April and December
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