There are many stories about why Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, but the truth is elegant.
Michael Collins agreed that if he lost he’d stay in lunar orbit, so he got to call it in the air. He called tails.
Buzz Aldrin thought he was slick and called heads.
They knew something was up when they turned to Neil and found he wasn’t sweating it.
The coin flipped through the air. And flipped. And kept flipping, floating away from them down the shuttle. It Collins and Aldrin an interstellar minute to realize there wasn't enough gravity in space for the coin to land.
Having called nothing, Neil Armstrong got to take the giant leap for mankind, plant the flag and become the icon of space travel.
All three were proud to bring humanity to its moon. Buzz and Collins, though, would never touch anything smaller than a one-dollar bill for the rest of their lives.
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